Intensity (26 Viewers)

[Gosb]

'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?

 

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[Hullinho87]

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.

 

[M3rcian]

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...

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

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.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

I think it’s bravery and belief

 

[SBAndy]

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.

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]

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.

 

[Flying Fokker]

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.

 

[covcity4life]

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.

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]

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.

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]

Frank put that dog in them

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

Frank put that dog in them

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]

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.

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.

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

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.

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.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

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.

Same

 

[SBAndy]

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?

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.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

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.

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

 

[Warwickhunt]

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]

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.

Refs normally are very clear that if there’s an advantage to give they will look to give it

 

[Warwickhunt]

Refs normally are very clear that if there’s an advantage to give they will look to give it

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

 

[mrtrench]

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.

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