The lost intensity.

Some statistics regarding our intensity. The data is from CL only.

Current season, posession, KM run, minutes of effective play.

Bayern: 70% . 116,146 km, 63'.
FC Barcelona: 66% posesión. 101,659 km. 68' de juego.
Real Madrid: 53% posesión. 109,539 km. 62' de juego.
Atletico: 51% posesión. 119,576 km. 64' de juego.

If we divide the KM run by the minutes effectively played, we have an indicator of the intensity for every team:
1. Atletico: 1,8683 km/min
2. Bayern: 1,8435 km/min.
3. Real Madrid: 1,7667 km/min.
4. FC Barcelona: 1,4949 km/min

Barça is currently running almost a 20% less per minute played than Bayern and Atletico.

Some will argue that running depends on style and Barça style makes you run less. Other would argue that running more it's not needed to win. While that can be partially true, we can look at previous data.

I calculated that during Pep's last great season 2010-2011, we run an average of 109,95 km per game (knockout stages only). 8 km more than our current average. Also, it turns out that every single great of our matches, we have run more than the opposition. We run more vs. Arsenal both gamnes, vs. Real Madrid semifinal both games, vs Shaktar 5-1 and at Wembley final. We also run more vs. Milan 4-0 last season.

So, although our style favours games with less running, we needed to run more than the opposition to win them well.

However, since 2011 our running is decreasing... while the rest of the team's are increasing their running. It used to be weird until 2012 to find many games in the CL with more than 110 km run per team. Now it's almost the norm. Here a full list of running average and peak running from Top teams this season in CL:

---------------average----peak
Real Madrid - 110.470km - 111.388km
Juve - 117.597 km - 124.353km
Bayern - 117.627km - 122.125km
Borussia Dortmund - 116.732km - 126.334km
Arsenal - 111.079km - 113.847km
Manchester City - 113.380km - 115.381km
Chelsea - 114.796km - 117.874km
AC Milan - 104.374km - 107.897km
FC Barcelona - 107.651km - 111.509km
PSG - 106.462km - 110.169km

Only Milan runs less than us, and some teams run a hell lot more than us, especially Bayern, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund, with an impresive 126,33 km of peak running.

So we have a big problem and it's about our physical intensity, that it's clearly less, while other teams have upped their game. It can be due to motivation, change in style, change of players and some players not being at their physical peak anymore.

Can we win the CL running less than our opposition? Or will we be able to up our intensity when facing intensity monsters like Bayern or Dortmund?

I dont think we can beat Bayern or Dortmund, especially not if we are not putting in the required effort. Thats really the crux of it.

You arent going to beat a team just as talented as you, with a great gameplan when they are also outworking you.

In the end, the stats on running are quite controversial to me.

Mostly because everyone has different styles so some teams require less distance than others. More important than distance is intensity of running, are the players jogging back on counter attacks or are they sprinting? Are they pressing at a sprint as soon as the ball is lost or are they jogging? So direct comparison to other teams dont really work for me when your only talking about distance.

However, its correct to say we dont have the same intensity as previously and other teams work harder. Thats not a surprise to me.

In the end, I am at the same point as before. Not going to be teams at a similar level if they out-work us. I dont know if these stats show that or not, for me they dont exactly, but no matter the overall point is still true.

our midfield isn't getting any younger and the times of insane pressing are well behind us. in any case we can also be effective even with the intensity toned down. caompared to last season we have more clean sheets and more consistent goalscorers whic is good news for me

Great stats free.Thanks for posting.Just confirms what most of us had suspected.
I had mentioned after the games against Bayern that the biggest difference between the teams was the physical intensity.They were miles ahead of us physically and just pummeled us.I had felt at the time that the only player on our team who could compete with them physically was Alves.Still true I think.Maybe Alexis too has that same level of intensity but other than that I cant name anyone on our team who can sustain that level of intensity throughout a game.

On whether we can win against them by running less,depends.As dani mentioned,more than the amount run,its the intensity that counts.We have to be intense while defending and attacking.That means no one walks around as if they own the pitch.

I guess one simple fact, however exact you can measure it, is that your key players have won everything over and over again.
It's only natural that at some point their intensity is going to wane a little.
All good things come to an end..

The stats are heavily influenced by Dani's and Xavi's older age and by Pedro losing his starting spot. We have to remember that Xavi used to be one of the biggest runners in the team, frequently being in the top 2 most kms covered for us.