Do Teams Differ in Physical Outputs and Is There a Relationship Between Physical Outputs and Results?

Total Distance Between Teams

Monitoring total distance covered during matches is important to monitor the team’s, and individual players’ external load, but how do elite teams compare to each other within the same league?
The box and whisker plot below shows the variability of total distance covered within each team, and includes data from all matches. The box represents the median total distance covered and where 50% of the data points lie, the whiskers extending to the upper and lower extremes of the data, and the points representing outliers in the data.
The bar chart shows the average total distance covered for each team at home and away matches, ranked in order from most to least total distance covered across all matches.
Overall, teams differed by 1.28% when looking at all matches pooled together.
Slightly larger differences were seen at home (2.03%) than away (0.45%).
Slightly greater differences were seen within teams than between teams.

High speed running is important because it allows teams to create goal scoring opportunities, begin counter attacks, and get back to defensive positions quickly, but does it vary between elite teams in the same league?
The box and whisker plot below shows the variability of high speed running distance covered within each team across all matches throughout the season, with the box representing the median high speed running distance and where 50% of the data points lie, the whiskers extending to the upper and lower extremes of the data, and the points representing outliers in the data.
The bar chart shows the average distance of high speed running (m) for each team at home and away matches, ranked in order from most to least distance at high speeds across all matches.
Overall there was a 5.11% difference between teams when looking at all matches pooled together.
Greater differences were seen between teams when playing at home (6.23%) than away (5.03%).
Within team differences were greater than between team differences when looking at all matches (11.11%), home matches (10.23%) and away matches (11.42%).

The graphs below show the relationship between results and average data for home and away matches for high speed running (m) and total distance covered (km).
The graph for high speed running suggests a possible positive correlation between high speed running and results for home matches.
Statistical analysis showed no statistically significant correlation between total distance and result, or high-speed running and result, when analysing home matches, away matches, and all matches.
There is possibly a positive correlation between high speed running and result for home matches, with high speed running accounting for approximately 10.74% of the variance in result.

High-speed running distance and total distance covered differs more within a team across the season than between teams.
When trying to improve physical outputs, it is important to consider the normal between match variation in these physical outputs to determine if changes seen are real changes or are attributed to this variation.
Physical outputs such as high-speed running and total distance covered in a match do not seem to affect the result of a match.
Focus on improving technical and tactical aspects of the game such as passing accuracy and assists, shooting accuracy and defensive skills.
The focus of improving physical outputs such as high-speed running should be done in possession of the ball.