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Intensity (1 Viewer)

  • Thread starter Gosb
  • Start date Nov 28, 2025
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Gosb

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #1
'Intensity' is what the pundits are saying that the City have. But what is it, and how did we get it? It can't just be fitness as all teams are fit. But we seem to be able to attack and defend in numbers, generally overpower the opposition and keep going. Along with most fans I would have settled for a draw on Tuesday after Conway's miss, but the City didn't, and having got ahead they didn't then sit back to defend the lead but went and scored another. What's going on?
 
Reactions: oakey

Hullinho87

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #2
There are of course tactical complexities but overall in its simplest form, it’s a combination of square pegs in square holes, player skill set to their specific role … and bravery + belief in a risk vs reward approach. Everyone to a man is on board with it, including players on the fringes - that is easy to explain but hard to implement.

Full credit to everyone involved on & off the pitch.
 
Reactions: CovRes, RegTheDonk and wingy
M

M3rcian

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #3
I think it's the fear of making mistakes that hold a lot of teams back. The best attacking teams play with freedom that bamboozles the opposition negating the system they're trained to adhere to. FL seems to have found a fluidity that makes us hard to contain at times and piles pressure on rigid systems. That pressure is I think what they mean by intensity. All I know is it makes for constant threat and is a treat to watch. Yeah, we'll concede goals, but as long as we keep scoring more then them...
 
Reactions: oakey, wingy and MaltaSkyBlue

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #4
It sounds like we’ve done a lot of work on fitness to be honest. Before Lampard was hired, King talked up the work Dr Roberts was doing with regards to S&C and so on… Lampard comes in and says he’s disappointed with the fitness levels last season and mentioned we’d work on it this summer.

In fairness to Lampard too, he’s tweak a lot of tactics to make us a much more tactically fluid team. There’s no prescriptive idealistic style of play, we a lot of things v well. We can dominate possession when the situation requires but also go route one or hit teams on the counter.

No disrespect to Robins intended here, but we didn’t have this level of tactical depth when he was our manager.
 
Reactions: SAJ, Brighton Sky Blue, ccfcchris and 4 others

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #5
I think it’s bravery and belief
 
Reactions: Fusilier and Hullinho87

SBAndy

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #6
Mucca Mad Boys said:
It sounds like we’ve done a lot of work on fitness to be honest. Before Lampard was hired, King talked up the work Dr Roberts was doing with regards to S&C and so on… Lampard comes in and says he’s disappointed with the fitness levels last season and mentioned we’d work on it this summer.

In fairness to Lampard too, he’s tweak a lot of tactics to make us a much more tactically fluid team. There’s no prescriptive idealistic style of play, we a lot of things v well. We can dominate possession when the situation requires but also go route one or hit teams on the counter.

No disrespect to Robins intended here, but we didn’t have this level of tactical depth when he was our manager.
Click to expand...

Re the first point, I suppose it comes down to the type of fitness we were building. Plausible that the fitness work pre-Lampard was more around durability, being able to get through a full 90, whereas clearly there's an expectation of intensity with the team now. Regardless, clearly we're fitter overall than we were, and I think the issues we faced with not being able to bring players off previously hampered long-term fitness which we are able to manage a lot better now.
 

skybluecam

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #7
We're incredibly efficient with the ball.

You look at a lot of the possession stats and we're pretty middle of the road. Then you look at things like touches in the penalty area, crosses, shots and we are top, often by a big margin. It's that ability to move the ball forward quickly and convert it into a crossing or shooting chance that is making us so successful.
 
Reactions: procdoc, Fusilier, Skyblueweeman and 4 others

Flying Fokker

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #8
Lampard’s game is so adaptive. It concerned me last season when we were playing a lot of tippy tappy, back to the keeper football. He’s conditioned the team to use it when we have to.
I
Teams play us and expect us to win. Would settle for a draw but hope they win.
Lampard /the players have a swagger about them. So they should.

The way the game changed once Tuesday once the team changed formation was masterful.
It was like the 2x speed button had been pressed.

That’s why teams fear us.
 
Reactions: M3rcian

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #9
Mucca Mad Boys said:
It sounds like we’ve done a lot of work on fitness to be honest. Before Lampard was hired, King talked up the work Dr Roberts was doing with regards to S&C and so on… Lampard comes in and says he’s disappointed with the fitness levels last season and mentioned we’d work on it this summer.

In fairness to Lampard too, he’s tweak a lot of tactics to make us a much more tactically fluid team. There’s no prescriptive idealistic style of play, we a lot of things v well. We can dominate possession when the situation requires but also go route one or hit teams on the counter.

No disrespect to Robins intended here, but we didn’t have this level of tactical depth when he was our manager.
Click to expand...
Remember when Lampard was called tactically naive by some on here because they didn't understand you can't just implement the perfect tactic from game 1?
 

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #10
skybluecam said:
We're incredibly efficient with the ball.

You look at a lot of the possession stats and we're pretty middle of the road. Then you look at things like touches in the penalty area, crosses, shots and we are top, often by a big margin. It's that ability to move the ball forward quickly and convert it into a crossing or shooting chance that is making us so successful.
Click to expand...
This.

Millwall away we had 31% and Boro we had 40% possession yet we had more shots on target despite having less of the ball. WBA (H) we had 67% of possession and dominated all the other areas.

Last season, we were more ball dominant, particularly away from home, and at times it felt like we got ‘stuck’ against low blocks. Looking at our away fixtures towards the end of last season, mostly relegation teams that play with a low block and look to counter quickly.

We’ve taken that mentality and put it to good use in a lot of games this season, Millwall and Boro in particular, we were ruthlessly clinical in front of goal.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #11
Frank put that dog in them
 
Reactions: Hullinho87

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #12
shmmeee said:
Frank put that dog in them
Click to expand...
You know what, fair play for your damascene conversion on Lampard.

I’m hoping we don’t get periodic ‘Taxi for Lampard’ threads whenever we lose the odd game.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #13
Mucca Mad Boys said:
You know what, fair play for your damascene conversion on Lampard.

I’m hoping we don’t get periodic ‘Taxi for Lampard’ threads whenever we lose the odd game.
Click to expand...

Nah man he’s proven me massively wrong and fair play to him. Like with robins or any manager with credit in the bank he’s earned himself time even if we did Cardiff it up this season.
 
Reactions: Sick Boy and Sky Blue Pete

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #14
shmmeee said:
Nah man he’s proven me massively wrong and fair play to him. Like with robins or any manager with credit in the bank he’s earned himself time even if we did Cardiff it up this season.
Click to expand...
I don’t think we’ll Cardiff it up. I’ll be v shocked if we bottle automatic promotion and probably wouldn’t ever recover from those scars.
 
Reactions: Brighton Sky Blue, shmmeee, TomRad85 and 1 other person

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #15
Mucca Mad Boys said:
I don’t think we’ll Cardiff it up. I’ll be v shocked if we bottle automatic promotion and probably wouldn’t ever recover from those scars.
Click to expand...
Same
 
Reactions: Mucca Mad Boys

SBAndy

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #16
covcity4life said:
Remember when Lampard was called tactically naive by some on here because they didn't understand you can't just implement the perfect tactic from game 1?
Click to expand...

I’ve referenced this before, but that first 30 mins vs Cardiff (Lampard’s first game in charge) showed how he wanted us to play. We just didn’t have the fitness to do it. I really feared he would dogmatically stick to this style but the fact he was pragmatic, adapted our style and clearly prioritised fitness over the summer is the most positive sign of his management for me.
 
Reactions: Sky Blue Pete and covcity4life

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #17
SBAndy said:
I’ve referenced this before, but that first 30 mins vs Cardiff (Lampard’s first game in charge) showed how he wanted us to play. We just didn’t have the fitness to do it. I really feared he would dogmatically stick to this style but the fact he was pragmatic, adapted our style and clearly prioritised fitness over the summer is the most positive sign of his management for me.
Click to expand...
I love his seriousness around the training and interviews and the match. The only time he seems to let it go is at the end
I think he may be struggling to enjoy it as much as all of us.
Keep reliving torps run for the first goal just brilliant
 
Reactions: MaltaSkyBlue, CovRes and Skyblueweeman

Warwickhunt

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #18
Two goals were from a subsequent passage of play where our players refused to go down after being fouled. To me the opposition players slow up cos they think the foul will make the Referee stop the game! Where in if a player struggles but stays on his feet they ignore it and wave play on.
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #19
Warwickhunt said:
Two goals were from a subsequent passage of play where our players refused to go down after being fouled. To me the opposition players slow up cos they think the foul will make the Referee stop the game! Where in if a player struggles but stays on his feet they ignore it and wave play on.
Click to expand...
Refs normally are very clear that if there’s an advantage to give they will look to give it
 

Warwickhunt

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #20
Sky Blue Pete said:
Refs normally are very clear that if there’s an advantage to give they will look to give it
Click to expand...
My point being the effect of staying up on the feet no matter how much of a struggle the opposition players mindset has been adjusted and they cannot react again! The player on Torpe could not get back onto Torpe to stop him again, same applies to Kitchen the player who tried to trip him could not recover cos he stayed on his feet. It's a bout mindset and conditioned players
 
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mrtrench

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #21
Mucca Mad Boys said:
It sounds like we’ve done a lot of work on fitness to be honest. Before Lampard was hired, King talked up the work Dr Roberts was doing with regards to S&C and so on… Lampard comes in and says he’s disappointed with the fitness levels last season and mentioned we’d work on it this summer.
Click to expand...

A song for Dr. Roberts? Ready made by the Beatles. It's fate.

 
Reactions: Sick Boy and Mucca Mad Boys
S

sc1940

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #22
Gosb said:
'Intensity' is what the pundits are saying that the City have. But what is it, and how did we get it? It can't just be fitness as all teams are fit. But we seem to be able to attack and defend in numbers, generally overpower the opposition and keep going. Along with most fans I would have settled for a draw on Tuesday after Conway's miss, but the City didn't, and having got ahead they didn't then sit back to defend the lead but went and scored another. What's going on?
Click to expand...
Yes, I said similar in a recent post. Personally I'm not to worried about the goals we have recently conceded because I think it's part of how we play. Throw players forward and goals will come, but we will also be likely to concede, our game plan is to score more than the opposition, simple as that.
 
W

wingy

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #23
SBAndy said:
Re the first point, I suppose it comes down to the type of fitness we were building. Plausible that the fitness work pre-Lampard was more around durability, being able to get through a full 90, whereas clearly there's an expectation of intensity with the team now. Regardless, clearly we're fitter overall than we were, and I think the issues we faced with not being able to bring players off previously hampered long-term fitness which we are able to manage a lot better now.
Click to expand...
We're certainly picking up more injuries aren't we?
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #24
wingy said:
We're certainly picking up more injuries aren't we?
Click to expand...
More?
Really?
any evidence,
 
W

wingy

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #25
Yeah I think so have to be honest, whether my perceptions off I don't know?
 

Hullinho87

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #26
skybluecam said:
We're incredibly efficient with the ball.

You look at a lot of the possession stats and we're pretty middle of the road. Then you look at things like touches in the penalty area, crosses, shots and we are top, often by a big margin. It's that ability to move the ball forward quickly and convert it into a crossing or shooting chance that is making us so successful.
Click to expand...

Do you know what the maddest thing is, we are slightly in efficient, stats wise, on a chance creation to goal’s ratio.

Normally in that circumstance you would say “when this team clicks in a game, they will score 3 or 4”

We do that anyway, haha - with us currently, it’s more of a case “if they click they will put 7, 7+ past someone” (again)
 
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Old Warwickshire lad

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #27
For me two things have changed.
One,we still look to get the ball wide and ping crosses into the box. The difference being that under Robins we would have one man in the middle,or two if we were lucky.
Now we regularly get 4,5 or 6 pouring into the box looking for the ball.
The other change is we are happy now to go long,especially with the diagonal ball straight from the keeper or centre backs out to the wing.
The opposition has no idea what the bloody hell we are going to do next.
 
Reactions: MaltaSkyBlue and DazzleTommyDazzle

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #28
Sky Blue Pete said:
I love his seriousness around the training and interviews and the match. The only time he seems to let it go is at the end
I think he may be struggling to enjoy it as much as all of us.
Keep reliving torps run for the first goal just brilliant
Click to expand...
He’s worked extremely hard along with his staff and knows he’s hit on a winning formula. You could tell that he saw the lack of squad depth in certain positions as the only thing that may derail the season; I agree with him on that and so do those who’ve analysed our performance.

Pulling this off is a huge thing for his managerial career and clearly he’s deeply invested in seeing it through.
 
Reactions: Sky Blue Pete and Terry_dactyl
W

wingy

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #29
Brighton Sky Blue said:
He’s worked extremely hard along with his staff and knows he’s hit on a winning formula. You could tell that he saw the lack of squad depth in certain positions as the only thing that may derail the season; I agree with him on that and so do those who’ve analysed our performance.

Pulling this off is a huge thing for his managerial career and clearly he’s deeply invested in seeing it through.
Click to expand...
Yeah the only thing that appears on the horizon is if Doug goes all SISU and doesn't find the means to support him in his project.
Hold onto your horses!
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #30
wingy said:
Yeah the only thing that appears on the horizon is if Doug goes all SISU and doesn't find the means to support him in his project.
Hold onto your horses!
Click to expand...
I firmly expect quality additions in January to get us over the line.
 

skybluecam

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #31
Hullinho87 said:
Do you know what the maddest thing is, we are slightly in efficient, stats wise, on a chance creation to goal’s ratio.

Normally in that circumstance you would say “when this team clicks in a game, they will score 3 or 4”

We do that anyway, haha - with us currently, it’s more of a case “if they click they will put 7, 7+ past someone” (again)
Click to expand...
I don’t think we are- we’ve scored more than expected.
 

fatso

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #32
shmmeee said:
Frank put that dog in them
Click to expand...
 

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fatso

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #33
We win because the team have belief in the plan.
And Frank and his team never settle for a draw.

(Unlike some absolute pussies on here)
 
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Bidda

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #34
skybluecam said:
I don’t think we are- we’ve scored more than expected.
Click to expand...
I saw something on fb a few weeks ago which said that we had the highest number of missed quality chances. Something like 79. If that is true (is anything on fb true?), and we had converted some, out GD would be even more incredible.
 

Hullinho87

Well-Known Member
  • Nov 28, 2025
  • #35
skybluecam said:
I don’t think we are- we’ve scored more than expected.
Click to expand...
With Xg and chance to goal creation we are in the top 1 & 2 but 5th in shots on target vs shots taken %. Even a slight improvement on that in certain games would mean we could be scoring more.
Oxford, Wrexham and even firs had v ‘Boro are examples of that.

But we are splitting 100’s of hairs here so who cares.
 
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