It's been mentioned that Beckham ran over 16KM against Greece. What other examples are there of this?
What's the most a player has run during a match?
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
I remember Brozovic ran around 16 kms in one of the world cup game but it was in 120 mins.
Gary Linekar?
Shit. Sorry, ‘run.’ Dunno.
Shit. Sorry, ‘run.’ Dunno.
Brozovic supposedly did 16.3km in the 2018 WC, but like mentioned above it was 120 mins.
https://www.fedenerazzurra.net/news...orld-cup-record-in-distance-traveled-16339-km
https://www.fedenerazzurra.net/news...orld-cup-record-in-distance-traveled-16339-km
Thomas Muller ran 14 or 15 km in a WC game and that is not unusual for him.
That was Lineker’s exact thought process at the time as well.
Is it possible that Beckham's numbers are inflated? That tracking technology may not have been as precise back then.
I can provide Bundesliga numbers as a frame of reference. They only started tracking this type of data in 2011. The all-time record since then is 14.7 km by Vladimir Darida...and as far as I know he's way ahead of all other Bundesliga players. Kimmich's record stands at 13.7 km for instance.
Then again there's probably a long-distance runner out there who once played a football match and beat that.
Probably Kante in the 15-16 season for Leicester. The guy was doing about 4 players jobs.
Didn’t Gareth Bale used to put up big numbers when first playing for Tottenham.
Just found a website that listed scientific studies about this topic.
A study in 1952 measured an average distance of 3.3 km per match, one in 1974 found 4.8 km, in 1979 we were at 7.1 km and in the year 2000 a study set the average distance at 10.1 km per match.
A study in 2007 about La Liga and Champions League matches found an average distance of 11.39 km and a record of 13.74 km. A 2009 study about the Premier League established an average distance of 10.7 km.
So I'm very skeptical about someone supposedly running 16 km in 90 minutes some 20 years ago.
A study in 1952 measured an average distance of 3.3 km per match, one in 1974 found 4.8 km, in 1979 we were at 7.1 km and in the year 2000 a study set the average distance at 10.1 km per match.
A study in 2007 about La Liga and Champions League matches found an average distance of 11.39 km and a record of 13.74 km. A 2009 study about the Premier League established an average distance of 10.7 km.
So I'm very skeptical about someone supposedly running 16 km in 90 minutes some 20 years ago.
Van De Beek does a lot of running from the ball 
Beckham’s average at league level was 14km. So 16km isn’t that far fetched
Silva a few years ago in a game for city did around 500km if I was tracking rightly.
My point is that I doubt this is accurate. A google search yields an old guardian article that makes that claim but there's no actual data from that era that would prove that.
Some present-era PL data I found: last year the record for a single match was 13.21 km by Leander Dendoncker. In 2017 the highest average was 11.97 km by Christian Eriksen.
Yup. Vs England. 16339m
This was the top 10 last season:
Rather shockingly, we only have one appearance in the top 100. Fred ran 12.18km vs City, putting him in 78th position.
Some sports use outlier stats like these to identify dopers.
| 1 | Leander Dendoncker | WOL | BRI | 07/03/2020 | 13.21km |
| 2 | Dele Alli | TH | LIV | 11/01/2020 | 13.14km |
| 3 | James Milner | LIV | SU | 02/01/2020 | 13.11km |
| 4 | Tomas Soucek | WH | MC | 19/02/2020 | 13.10km |
| 5 | Bernardo Silva | MC | LEI | 21/12/2019 | 13.07km |
| 6 | André Gomes | EVE | BRI | 26/10/2019 | 12.91km |
| 7 | Jack Cork | BUR | MU | 22/01/2020 | 12.79km |
| 8 | Pablo Fornals | WH | ARS | 09/12/2019 | 12.75km |
| 9 | Philip Billing | BOU | LEI | 31/08/2019 | 12.71km |
| 10 | Sean Longstaff | NEW | EVE | 21/01/2020 | 12.69km |
Rather shockingly, we only have one appearance in the top 100. Fred ran 12.18km vs City, putting him in 78th position.
Some sports use outlier stats like these to identify dopers.
I’m surprised Fernandes isn’t on that list at any point. How about this season perhaps?
The Beckham figure is likely to be inflated given I'm fairly sure it was a one-off measurement so there's little robustness about the quality of the data. Not that he wasn't capable of covering big distances with his engine and school middle distance running credentials, but for it to be a figure that nobody has got anywhere near since is doubtful.
I'd take the old studies with a large pinch of salt for the same reason - unlikely to be any consistency of methodology for the measurement.
I've only seen them published for last season I'm afraid.
I’d love to know how far Cafu ran against us when he basically produced the best full back performance I have ever seen back in the day.
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He completed two Marathons in the 2014 world cup.
To be fair I'd expect that some positions in the 90's/00's ran more — today teams are usually way more compact. And Beckham was one of the most insanely hardworking runners of all-time, so in such a game, constantly running up and down, I'd say that in a one-off game it's possible.
Forrest Gump ?
Good shout, I think Cafu & Zanetti probably ran about 12km per game at least, they were absolutely tireless.
Not sure it proves anything, but this says the stats were provided by Opta or Prozone.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Foot...;+Our+Captain+Fantastic+ran+and...-a078988042
I also read somewhere ages ago he claimed that he still ran 12 miles a game when he was 36.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Foot...;+Our+Captain+Fantastic+ran+and...-a078988042
I also read somewhere ages ago he claimed that he still ran 12 miles a game when he was 36.
That's almost a half marathon - I'd say that's exaggerated.
When I hear about people running 15-16 km in a game - I simply don't believe it.
I have read the Beckham against Greece stats - but in every season I have seen, the players who run the most stop at 13.5 or thereabouts - but Beckham magically managed to run 2.5 km further. Sorry I just can't believe it.
I have read the Beckham against Greece stats - but in every season I have seen, the players who run the most stop at 13.5 or thereabouts - but Beckham magically managed to run 2.5 km further. Sorry I just can't believe it.
That's true but they seem to show that a) players have been consistently increasing the average running distances over the years and b) even a 14 km performance over 90 minutes is highly unusual.
So the data seems to indicate that Vladimir Darida is indeed one of the leaders in that field and probably one of the greatest runners this game has ever seen.
The top 5 all-time performances in the Bundesliga are:
- Vladimir Darida: 14.65 km (Dortmund vs. Hertha BSC, 06/06/20)
- Vladimir Darida: 14.52 km (Hertha BSC vs. Leverkusen, 20/06/20)
- Vladimir Darida: 14.34 km (Hertha BSC vs. Augsburg, 30/05/20)
- Vladimir Darida: 14.16 km (Hamburg vs. Hertha BSC, 17/03/18)
- Iver Fossum: 14.06 km (Hannover vs. Wolfsburg, 01/03/16)
What's really striking here is that his top 3 results all came within a 22-day period. Those were the early covid days and the Bundesliga had resumed play on May 16th. I wonder what the reason for this is. Maybe there wasn't much to do during lockdowns other than working on your stamina or maybe the lack of fans had an influence (less interruptions? don't know really).