The influence of rules manipulation on offensive patterns during small-sided and conditioned games in football

Abstract This study analyzed the influence of rules manipulation on offensive patterns in different Small-Sided and Conditioned Games (SSCGs). Fourteen young soccer players (13.82 ± 1.94 years) performed two different SSCG formats (6v6+Gk): Maintenance of Ball Possession Game (MPG) and Progression to the Target Game (PTG). Both games were played on a field 52 m long by 32 m wide. We used the Offensive Sequences Characterization System (OSCS) and SoccerEye software to analyze offensive sequences. For statistical analysis, we used the Mann-Whitney test to compare variables that compose the OSCS between the two SSCGs, while the SDIS-GSEQ software allowed us to detect offensive patterns. We concluded that the rule manipulation of SSCGs influenced changes in teams' offensive patterns, in which they self-organized according to manipulation of key task constraints.