摘要：The current study aimed to investigate the evolutionary trends of players’ technical performances in the UEFA Champions League. Match statistics of 18 technical performance indicators from 1,125 matches (2,489 players, 16,247 full match observations) from the group and knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League (season 2009/2010 to 2017/2018) were analysed. Separate Poisson regression models were run in the generalised mixed linear modelling to compare the differences in technical performances among seasons, and the autocorrelation function was used to identify the correlations within technical variables. Results demonstrated that players’ match performances in variables of shot and shot on target showed trivial changes over the nine seasons. The defending related variables showed either downward trends or negligible changes, and the passing- and attacking-related variables showed different evolving paths throughout the course of the nine seasons. These findings may indicate that European teams are now more focused on the control of the match play, creating offensive space by increasing the passing frequency and accuracy, rather than crossing the ball from the wings into the penalty. The significant autocorrelations were only detected in the attacking- and passing-related variables of cross, through ball and aerial won, they displayed persistence patterns among the nine seasons.
关键词：Football; Soccer; performance analysis; Technical evolution; UEFA champions league
