How have body size, age, and the use of substitutes evolved in English professional football over the 6 seasons 1973–4, 1983–4, 1993–4 to 2023–4?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that English professional football has changed substantially over the 6 season (1973–4, 1983–4, 1993–4 to 2023–4). The investment by satellite television has increased the financial rewards for success, leading to remarkable changes in the players’ fitness, body shape, age and risk of injury. The current aims of the study were to identify some of these changes such as the frequency of use of substitutes, players’ height, body mass, the reciprocal Ponderal index and age over 6 seasons using data obtained from football year books. Results confirm that players continue to become taller and more linear identified using the reciprocal Ponderal index, a trend observed with goalkeepers and defenders rather than midfielders and attackers. The body mass of players has also declined over the past three decades. There has also been a steady increase in the use of substitutes, a trend where substitutes appear to be replacing defenders rather than midfielders or attackers. We also identified that coaches from more successful teams (the six teams that qualified for Europe) use less substitutes, relying on their first-choice players selected at the beginning of the season compared with less successful teams. Players from successful teams remain consistently younger than players from less successful teams, a testament to the value of, and investment in, youth academies. In conclusion, top-flight teams continue to recruit taller and less heavy (ectomorphic) players, a trend that was only observed by successful teams in 2003 (the year of Arsenal’s Invincibles) but is now recognised by all Premier League teams. Successful teams also use less substitutes, preferring to play their first-choice players, compared with less successful teams.

Citation

Nevill, A.M., Smith, J., Cloak, R. (in press) How have body size, age, and the use of substitutes evolved in English professional football over the 6 seasons 1973–4, 1983–4, 1993–4 to 2023–4? International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching.

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published by SAGE on 03//06/2026, available online at https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541261450306. The accepted manuscript may differ from the final published version.

ISSN

1747-9541

EISSN

2048-397X

Collections

Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing