Understanding team tactics in football requires an in-depth knowledge of the dynamics emerging in different levels of complexity (micro-meso-macro). During competitive performance, teams tend to form specific subgroups of players that interact more frequently in the attacking and defending sub-phases of play. Therefore, our aim is to analyze and quantify the frequencies of simplices types (sub-groups of players) emerging in different areas of the pitch in both attacking and defending phases. The positional raw data (2D) of 28 male professional football players (22 starting players and 6 substitutes) was provided by STATS. These data were obtained by a multiple-camera match analysis system whereby the movements of all 28 players performed during the match were recorded with the cameras placed at the top of the stadium. The raw data of the displacements of the on-field players of each team (Team 1 and Team 2), were considered for the first half of a match. Frames were processed at 1Hz through an automated system that synchronized the video files. The effective playing area was 68 m wide and 105 m long. A computer procedure for computing the simplices' hyperedges, using a proximity-based criterion (see Ribeiro et al., 2019; 2021), was performed using GNU Octave version 4.4.1 and applied to each frame of the match. Proximity simplices and cooperative and competitive relations set the criteria for the definition of these groups and subgroups. The 1vs.1 structure occurred more often, with a special emphasis on the lateral corridors of the pitch independently of the ball possession (Figures 1a and 1b). The 1vs.2 appeared more frequently near the attacking goal in both teams, with team 1 in possession (Figure 1c) showing higher values than team 2 (Figure 1d). The 2vs.1 presented higher values in the central corridor near the defending goals, probably reflecting the intention of teams to create numerical superiority in this critical area of the pitch when defending (Figures 1e and 1f). Analysis of the frequency of simplices types in different areas of the pitch allowed to verify how specific subgroups of players tend to exploit space in both attacking and defending phases. Also, individual and team adaptive behaviour can also be depicted with teams creating advantageous conditions, through numerical superiority, in areas of the pitch near the defending goal. Differences between teams may also reflect different team tactics and strategy that might potentiate players’ individual characteristics.

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