Marti Cifuentes appointed new manager

[Iwebema]

I feel for him, inherited a broken squad full of mercenaries who dont want to be here. Minimal leaders in the dressing room and we are in the middle of a fire sale. 

Hes not even been able to sign anyone he wants outside of Begovic.

Need to give him alot of time I think

[Guest Bilo]

Whatever he's seeing in Skipp and Soumare, he needs to move away from it. Winks is crucial at this level and changed the game on Sunday.

[RowlattsFox]

Still has the same players as a manager 12 months ago  and we've had another manager in between that period.. 

 

No evidence of any improvement so far but why would there be when we have so much shite. 

[Sunbury Fox]

Not feeling at all confident after these 2 games. Need a massive improvement. 

[moore_94]

3 minutes ago, GorlestonFox said:

If he plays Skipp and Soumare together again then he's gonna have trouble 

I do understand he has had much less time with the squad and the squad in general is pretty shite

 

But this experiment with these two proper scares me

 

I really hope he drops it now

[Ric Flair]

This system has flaws if the players most likely to get on the ball in attacking areas are the likes of Luke Thomas and Hamza Choudhury. 

 

We saw teething problems at times under Enzo that the philosophy created opportunities to the players who aren't strong at attacking rather than try to work a system that gets your finishers a higher output of chances.

[fox_favourite]

What happened to the passing we saw in preseason. The shapes, the passage of play?! Today looked messy

[Blue-fox]

I’m concerned if he starts them pair together again at the weekend. 

[Blue.Fox84]

People can’t be going for him already surely!? 🤣

 

Admittedly I never watched the game tonight but most who played are what majority would select on here and was asking for on Sunday. 
 

This team has lost all identity of what we were built on 10 years ago, things won’t get better until a majority of this lot are gone

 

He has had a month less than every other team to work with the players, very likely he has very little room to sign any players until (and if) more players can be moved on and has players in there who’s egos don’t match their ability 

 

So far I’ve seen a manager looking to have a style of play and was capable of making decisions to change the outcome of the game. That’s better than the last 2 managers we’ve had here. 

[Tielemans63]

Maybe I'm defending him without reason, but I wonder if there the Soumare / Skipp thing is because there's stuff going on behind the scenes with Winks. Effectively, his hands are tied. Might be complete wrong.

Edited 13 August 2025 by Tielemans63

[Skid_1884]

Losing me already if he keeps playing some of these willy pullers, soumare in particular 

[PhillippaT]

As I said before, our a-team is merely 'ok' and our b-team is trash, so this is what we get...

[funkyrobot]

Cifuentes needs more quality at fullback, central midfield and in the centre forward role. The latter two areas are well discussed.

 

From the fullback perspective, Thomas is not equipped to offer the creativity Cifuentes’  (Cucurella style) left back role requires, nor is VK. Ricardo is our best right back but it’s never fit, JJ might be better on the left but struggles on the right despite being very right footed. Hamza it has to be said was very poor today other than a fabulous goal. 

[majaco]

We need a new cm.  

 

Winks would be first choice.  Didn't celebrate.    Clearly not invested in club

[CosbehFox]

9 minutes ago, Iwebema said:

I feel for him, inherited a broken squad full of mercenaries who dont want to be here. Minimal leaders in the dressing room and we are in the middle of a fire sale. 

Hes not even been able to sign anyone he wants outside of Begovic.

Need to give him alot of time I think

Blokes got a disaster to deal. He’s got a huge issue at CM where he’s a got disinterested Winks and two woeful other options. Upfront options are shite.  

[Ian Nacho]

I would assume that second goal was a tactical flaw. Choudhury had two men and McAteer wasn't even trying to get back to cover. 

[ithuriel]

8 minutes ago, fox_favourite said:

What happened to the passing we saw in preseason. The shapes, the passage of play?! Today looked messy

Was that down to King? makes you wonder with how they are playing competitive matches now.

[sdb]

Not concerned tbf. He's getting to know the squad and giving everyone a fair crack. Some of them are utterly useless and as long as he sees that soon, no issues. 

[winteriscoming]

Neither Skipp or Soumare have the pace, quality or intelligence to be a box to box midfielder. I’m hoping he now realizes this. 
If he doesn’t we’re gonna concede a lot of goals. 
There’s not enough senior players for Cifuentes to rely on. 

[Corky]

If Ricardo isn't fit he has to play at least one of Skipp, Soumare or Choudhury. Winks has started well but no guarantees he will stay that way.

 

The striking options are horrendous. This squad is nowhere near the one of two years ago. Hermansen, Vardy, Ndidi, Iheanacho and Dewsbury-Hall stroll into this team on one leg.

 

We lose one of El Khannouss or Fatawu and we are all but done.

[FLAN]

4 minutes ago, Ian Nacho said:

I would assume that second goal was a tactical flaw. Choudhury had two men and McAteer wasn't even trying to get back to cover. 

Guess who was in the vicinity doing f all 

[whetstonefox]

Biggest fear is what our squad will look like after September 1st, another manager thrown under the bus probably 

[Foxin_Mad]

6 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Blokes got a disaster to deal. He’s got a huge issue at CM where he’s a got disinterested Winks and two woeful other options. Upfront options are shite.  

And the defenders are all wank and can’t defend. All in all a truly magnificent squad assembled by the Director of football

[Dan]

His hands are tied but he needs to start kicking and screaming to get them to untie them. If not he's just going to be the next victim.

[coolhandfox]

11 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

This system has flaws if the players most likely to get on the ball in attacking areas are the likes of Luke Thomas and Hamza Choudhury. 

 

We saw teething problems at times under Enzo that the philosophy created opportunities to the players who aren't strong at attacking rather than try to work a system that gets your finishers a higher output of chances.

That's the biggest issue for me, you have to get the best out of your players, you have adapt your system to suit or change the players.

 

You need to get you best players on the ball, in area they can impact the game.

 

Probably be different if you have Ricardo fit with Justin.

 

Hamza and Thomas are on my out list as much as others, square pegs in round holes

 

We need a LB, ACM, CF minimum in through the door, ideally a DCM and another CF.