Futsal for talent development

Dr Yiannaki combines his academic work with a coaching career straddling both football and futsal, where has been working with coaches and players alike for more than 15 years. In this presentation, he outlines some fascinating research into the physical and technical demands of futsal, and considers what the findings might mean for talent development in the 11-a-side game.

• Futsal seems to place at least the same physical loads on players as 11-a-side football, suggesting it could be used to prepare youngsters for the rigours of elite football.

• It also has the potential to help develop technical skills that can be transferred to the 11-a-side game.

• The research is promising thus far, but more work is required to determine how best to use futsal to develop talented footballers.

Part 1: Background and physical analysis
As Dr Yiannaki explains, there is anecdotal evidence suggesting futsal could prove useful for developing talented footballers. To explore this hypothesis, he and his colleagues measured the physical demands on futsal players and compared them to those on players in the 11-a-side game. Their findings suggested that futsal and football are associated with similar levels of internal and external load, suggesting that futsal could be an effective way of preparing young players for the physical demands of elite football. However, futsal and football have very different formats and rules, and it is important to take these differences into account.

Part 2: Technical analysis and conclusions
The second half of the session focuses on the technical characteristics of futsal, including passing, receiving the ball, set-pieces and team-level statistics. Like other small-sided formats, futsal concentrates the frequency of many technical actions, but the unique constraints of the indoor format pose distinctive challenges for players.  Performing within these authentic futsal constraints has the potential to foster a wide range of technical skills that can also be applied to 11-a-side football. More research is now required in order to explore the extent of that potential and discover how best to integrate futsal into talent development systems.

Paper citation and link
Yiannaki, C., Barron, D., Collins, C., Carling, C.; “Match performance in a reference futsal team during an international tournament – implications for talent development in soccer”, Biology of Sport 37(2), pp 147 – 156 10.5114/biolsport.2020.93040

Read the full paper here.