Considering soccer matches as complex systems facilitates the identification of properties that emerge from the interactions between players. Such properties include the regularities and statistical patterns that characterize couplings and sets between players established during matches. Empirical studies on the statistical distributions of number of items (e.g., words in texts) have shown that these distributions follow scaling properties according to empirical laws known as Zipf-Mandelbrot. Here we investigate whether the (re)occurrence of pitch location of sets of players in a soccer match also obeys these empirical laws. Data collected from 10 soccer matches shows that, for most sets of players, this seems to be the case. Exceptions were found in particular types of sets, such as goalkeeper and goal, and left defender and right attacker from opposite teams. Rather than challenging the hypothesis that a Zipf-Mandelbrot law defines this system, these exceptions may be explained by the players configuration design, which is a trait of human interaction within complex systems. This design expresses match strategy, before the team enters in such dynamical processes (the game).

将足球比赛视为复杂的系统有助于识别球员之间互动产生的属性。这样的属性包括规律性和统计模式，这些规律性和统计模式表征比赛期间建立的球员之间的耦合和集合。对项目数量（例如，文字中的单词）的统计分布进行的经验研究表明，这些分布遵循称为Zipf-Mandelbrot的经验定律，具有标度属性。在这里，我们研究足球比赛中各组球员的球场位置的（重新）出现是否也遵循这些经验定律。从10场足球比赛中收集的数据表明，对于大多数球员来说，情况似乎确实如此。在特定类型的组合（例如守门员和进球）中发现了异常，以及来自对方队伍的左后卫和右进攻者。这些挑战可以用玩家配置设计来解释，这是复杂系统中人机交互的一个特征，而不是用齐夫-曼德布洛特法则定义该系统的假设提出质疑。在团队进入这种动态过程（游戏）之前，这种设计表示比赛策略。