Technical and tactical analysis of one-touch playing in soccer - Study of the production of information.

Soccer relies heavily upon defensive strategies and as a consequence, scoring a goal is more and more difficult for attackers. Therefore using one-touch playing allows attackers to play faster and in the end they can circumvent defenders before shooting at the goal. The aim of this study was twofold. First we attempted to recreate the real game conditions using small-sided games to carry out a research in a good scientific setting. We described the different steps to build our measurement tool. Second we studied the one-touch playing (OTP) strategy measuring the quantity of information produced for players. We identified 3 kinds of information: spatial, event and temporal. We studied 40 attacks and we concluded that one-touch passing is efficient, reliable and safe. Therefore, players have to anticipate and have to take possession of free spaces before the defenders. They have to pass the ball systematically in an opposite direction while remaining close to each other, so that the distance between them remains the same. In the end, attackers circumvent the defensive system with a simplified game using very clear and simple information.