Lions coach Jason Kreis is all eyes these days.

With the Club is set on building a winner in Year 2 under the new boss, Kreis and his staff are keeping a close watch on the players’ fitness, energy and technical ability.

They’re three critical factors in determining who stays and who goes between November and March.

Kreis put incredible emphasis on fitness when he arrived in July. His training sessions were grueling lessons in defense and his new tactics, and they ended with a healthy dose of sprints under the high noon summer sun.

But management didn’t just bring in Kreis to turn the Lions into a squad of ironmen. Orlando City has always been built around an attacking-minded, possession-oriented style of play, and to do that requires a particular vigor.

“You dominate matches first and foremost by having and keeping the ball,” Kreis said.

Regaining the ball is one of the most important aspects of successfully deploying a possession style system. But it’s not just regaining the ball, it’s regaining it quickly.

“It’s about how much the ball means to them,” he said. “How much they enjoy having it, how much it pains them not to have it.”

The playoffs are off the table, but the stakes for the players are just as high. Put bluntly, they’re playing for jobs.

“Nobody knows who is going to be here next year,” said defender Luke Boden, who’s been with the Club since 2011.

The Lions have been doing a lot of proving themselves this season. That never ends for professional athletes, but the whole team started with a clean slate when Kreis took over.

But now with just two games to go, it’s about proving they deserve to be a part of and, more importantly, can contribute to a winning club and culture.

So Kreis wants to see the hurt – the hurt of losing games, and of losing the ball.

He was posed a question this week about a decreased sense of urgency now that they’re “just” playing for pride.

“It’s not that I worry,” he said, a sly smile creeping across his face. “It’s that I’m watching.”