The aim of this study was to study the association between technical performance (volume of play, efficiency index and performance score) and tactical behaviour (indegree and outdegree centrality) in different competitive levels of football. Sixty-six male soccer players (U12 – 11.23 ± 0.3 years old and 2.11 ± 0.9 years of practice; U14 – 13.43 ± 0.8 years old and 3.76 ± 2.4 years of practice; U16 – 15.67 ± 0.7 years old and 5.32 ± 1.3 years of practice; U18 – 17.84 ± 1.1 years old and 9.21 ± 2.2 years of practice; Amateurs with more than 20 years old – 23.45 ± 4.2 years old and 11.12 ± 2.7 years of practice) were observed in three official matches. The indegree centrality showed a large positive correlation with performance score (r = 0.630; p = 0.001) and very large positive correlation with volume of play (r = 0.735; p = 0.001). The outdegree centrality showed large positive correlation with volume of play (r = 0.535; p = 0.001), efficiency index (r = 0.590; p = 0.001) and performance score (r = 0.669; p = 0.001). In conclusion, this study revealed that the prominence in network activity might be associated with the technical performance in the match.
Keywords: Graph Theory; Adjacency Matrices; Network Analysis; Technical Performance; Football.