Marti Cifuentes appointed new manager

[Izzet is God]

It was interesting to hear Marti’s post match interview. He said that he told the players to go out and push for more goals 2nd half, yet we were worse. He then decided to change the game by bringing Skipp on, who offers absolutely nothing. He’s not box to box, he’s not attack minded, and I generally can’t understand what he does when he is on the pitch. 
Last night should have easily been a professional job of get 2 or 3 early doors and send these clowns back to North Wales waking them up from their pretty tv dream.

 

Aside from JJ and BDCR we were awful in my opinion. Marti took both off. Wrexham are dross. They played for a point and got one. 
 

The worrying fact is 2nd half we didn’t even look like testing their keeper. This was after his team talk. Either the players are still believing they are better than they are or they aren’t buying into his ideas. If it’s the earlier then drop them and play the kids. We had 6 (supposedly) internationals in our side that finished the game and they can’t even manage to break through a team that is clearly lower quality. 
 

I appreciate he’s been dealt a bad hand but make a point to the board and f*** off those players who are clearly sub standard or bad eggs. Get them training on their own and clearly state they need to actively look elsewhere for a move in Jan. Marti didn’t sign the contracts so the board can like it or lump it if he does that as they don’t choose who plays. 
 

We are in such a weird space of having a supposedly good side for this league but a shocking one for the Prem. We’re proving this squad can’t even beat the likes of Oxford, Wrexham and Huddersfield. 
 

Club needs a massive overhaul and we’re unlikely to see that any time soon. 
It’s going to feel like a VERY long season…

[Muzzy_no7]

So far this season the three major points for me have been:

 

-Lack of running beyond the defence to stretch play and create space. 

-Not anywhere near enough of a press.

 

-One of, or both full backs not overlapping. 

 

Starting Daka last night did actually make us play a little better, not good enough…but better. He pressed and encouraged others too. He made runs and created space. He had their defenders back peddling. Ayew hasn’t been doing any of this and it’s killed our attack.

 

Also, we desperately need one of our full backs to overlap. It literally doesn’t happen at all. For me it should come down the left mainly, LT or VK should be overlapping. There’s enough cover. The two CB’s, Winks and Ricardo/Hamza should in theory then dominate the middle of the pitch while we are attacking. We are very predictable and an overlap regularly would enhance our blunt attack. 
 

The press has been pathetic and that’s why I think Daka and Carranza should be starting, not Ayew as it makes us play better as a collective, cohesive unit. Fatawu joins in but Stiffy just looks disinterested both on and off the ball. 
 

Hopefully Ramsay coming back will get things going so there’s proper energy behind the striker in central areas, not just JJ. 

[Richmondfox]

43 minutes ago, murphy said:

But replacing an attacking midfielder with a defensive one is the problem imo, regardless of the personnel.  We chose to retreat when we were dominant with a quarter of the match still to play.  Maybe I'm naive but I believe that if you're on top you press on regardless of the scoreline.  We handed the initiative and momentum over to Wrexham on a platter.

 

Also that the defensive player coming on doesn’t seem to be able to defend. JJ would play deep and drive forward, Skipp just floated around the middle not actually doing much of anything. 
 

It’s the same negative dross BR rolled out.  Weak mindset from the manager devoid of attacking tactics. 

[Mickyblueeyes]

Weak manager = weak team. Yes there are players who absolutely need to go but that result was on the manager yesterday and the cowardly sub. 
 

Having a weak pathetic, do nothing owner is bad enough. Don’t join him Marti. 

[Stadt]

30 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

Difference is people aren't playing defensive against Hull. We are easy to defend and teams would be stupid not to sit deep and let Winks, Faes and Vestergaard pass to each other. 

They’re not but I’d rather have Fatawu, Monga, James et al and come up against defensive teams.

 

Ipswich aren’t struggling (xG wise) and they’re coming up against defensive set ups.

[fox in the sox]

I’m not sure what people were expecting from him. He kept QPR up but was pretty dreadful after that.

[kingfox]

Two issues imo.

 

• Style of play - When it comes to being a possession dominant team, we’ve seen this script before. A good chunk of our fanbase are just bored of this style of play, we know how it goes, we know how predictable it can be. When we don’t have a clinical striker on the end of our build ups, then the style of play just ends up looking even worse. 
   
• Personnel - I said the other week that some of the personnel concerns me more than Cifuentes. We managed to get some of the shit out over the summer, but it simply wasn’t enough. Our defence can be decent at this level, but as seen in recent games, Faes, Vestergaard, Thomas, Kristiansen, all have mistakes in them. Not getting one of Faes or Vestergaard out the door was criminal, while keeping Thomas and Kristiansen as our left-back options isn’t ideal either. Then comes the midfield, it’s alright saying “I don’t want to see Skipp and Soumare in a Leicester shirt again”, but I’m sorry to say, if Winks & James continue to be our first choice pairing, then at least one of Skipp or Soumare are going to come on in a lot of games whether we like it or not. We haven’t replaced Ndidi’s attributes in our midfield which could also end up punishing us. Then comes to our strikers, we needed a first choice striker, if Carranza doesn’t end up being that guy, then we’ve yet again fvcked up the position where we needed to recruit the most.

What we did over the summer was a start, but was it enough? After the eight games we’ve seen, it’s looking like a no.

[Foxdiamond]

Of course we all want us to tear up the division but don't think this is realistic. The manager has a major rebuild to do and try to gather a decent points total while doing it. It seems whoever is not playing seems appealing simply because they are not under the spotlight. Looking at contracts up in June 26 will be the crux of what happens and if the younger players really the future.

[Qwerty]

The problem is that people (LCFC fans and the media in general) seem to assume that this season will be similar to our last season in the Championship, when we had the best team in the league by miles, and won it comfortably.  In reality our team now is nowhere near as good as the 23/24 team. We no longer have Mads, KDH, Vardy, Ndidi etc.   All the players who left have been replaced by someone less good.  I honestly think that with the best manager in the world we'd still only be expecting a play-off spot if we're lucky. 

 

 

 

 

 

[filbertway]

Do wonder if it's a case of us having pretty much the same squad that has had a certain style drilled into them. It could take a while for them to fully appreciate how Marti wants them to play. How drilled these players are, playing safety first football will likely still be in the muscle memory (for lack of a better term).

[Chelmofox]

12 minutes ago, Qwerty said:

The problem is that people (LCFC fans and the media in general) seem to assume that this season will be similar to our last season in the Championship, when we had the best team in the league by miles, and won it comfortably.  In reality our team now is nowhere near as good as the 23/24 team. We no longer have Mads, KDH, Vardy, Ndidi etc.   All the players who left have been replaced by someone less good.  I honestly think that with the best manager in the world we'd still only be expecting a play-off spot if we're lucky. 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny, most of the media i watched had us missing out on play offs in predictions, and had Southampton and Ipswich ripping up the league. Its only some of our fans who think we have the best squad in the Championship.

[Qwerty]

4 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Funny, most of the media i watched had us missing out on play offs in predictions, and had Southampton and Ipswich ripping up the league. Its only some of our fans who think we have the best squad in the Championship.

Actually you're right - the bookies had us coming 7th I think. 

But the general vibe from other teams' fans (who don't follow LCFC closely) is that they expect us to go straight back up like we did last time.   And opposition fans still think it's a massive result if they come away with points after playing us. 

 

Edited 1 October 2025 by Qwerty

[Corky]

This squad is nowhere near the quality of two years ago but continuing with the failures isn't helping. Left-back and striker options are not good. I wish he would tell Vestergaard to actually pass the ball quicker and generally just up the urgency.

[Fox92]

24 minutes ago, Qwerty said:

The problem is that people (LCFC fans and the media in general) seem to assume that this season will be similar to our last season in the Championship, when we had the best team in the league by miles, and won it comfortably.  In reality our team now is nowhere near as good as the 23/24 team. We no longer have Mads, KDH, Vardy, Ndidi etc.   All the players who left have been replaced by someone less good.  I honestly think that with the best manager in the world we'd still only be expecting a play-off spot if we're lucky. 

 

 

 

 

 

So what do Middlesbrough fans expect, Stoke, Bristol City? All above us with squads not as good as ours. This whole "doesn't matter who the manager is" is a poor excuse. Our aim should be promotion. Aside from the other two relegated teams, I bet you cannot give me another team with a better squad than us. The key difference is the manager and we're currently below managers getting the best out of their squads. Whether that changes over the course of the season then time will only tell.

[Qwerty]

8 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

So what do Middlesbrough fans expect, Stoke, Bristol City? All above us with squads not as good as ours. This whole "doesn't matter who the manager is" is a poor excuse. Our aim should be promotion. Aside from the other two relegated teams, I bet you cannot give me another team with a better squad than us. The key difference is the manager and we're currently below managers getting the best out of their squads. Whether that changes over the course of the season then time will only tell.

How do we know their squads are not as good as ours?   Just because our squad probably cost more, it doesn't meant they're definitely better.  It just means we had more money than them so we paid more for our players.  A bit like when we won the PL - no one could believe we were doing so well with a team that was "worth" a fraction of the Big 6 teams. 

[Fox on the Rox]

2 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Okoli is crap, Faes is crap, Vesty is slow, Nelson is injured.

He's not. I know it seems the only feasible explanation but, despite what you might see on the internet, he's not. The club hasn't said he's injured. He's in the background on the training videos taking part like all the other fit players.

[Fox92]

26 minutes ago, Qwerty said:

How do we know their squads are not as good as ours?   Just because our squad probably cost more, it doesn't meant they're definitely better.  It just means we had more money than them so we paid more for our players.  A bit like when we won the PL - no one could believe we were doing so well with a team that was "worth" a fraction of the Big 6 teams. 

Most of our players are internationals and have played top division football for x number of years. That's without costs. A better manager would be getting more of out them and not persisting with players that are not good enough and do not perform. That's on top of the actual football being too slow and predictable. We create fvck all yet I would say a lot of teams would love to have the options of Fatawu/Monga/Mavididi. Winks and Ricardo are among the best, if not the best, players in the league as well.

[tickler28]

Absolutely zero point keeping the ball in triangles in your own half of the pitch for an hour of the match if you can only create 1 chance from it....looks awful....bores supporters and when the opposition let you do it and then sneak an equaliser you look pretty stupid. We were made to look like complete fools last night. No way on gods earth should we ever be doing anything other than winning that match. Wrexham are a team nowhere near Championship standard....they have a couple of decent players but other than that were dross and it's pretty unforgivable that we didn't walk away with all 3 points last night....wait is that another backwards pass I'm seeing 😫 was dreaming about backwards passes last night

Edited 1 October 2025 by tickler28

[Mickyblueeyes]

It’s not about squad, entitlement, winning the league for ****s sake. Believing anything.
 

If you’re 1-0 up against Wrexham, at home, with 70% possession and dominating the game - if you make a decision which loses you that control, I don’t care if you have Ryan Junior Skipp Lewis in your midfield, you’ve ****ed it - you’re going to raise alarm bells. You’re going to question the manager/his staff. That lost of control was horrendous. 
 

 

[Filbert Fireworks]

We were fine in the first half last night. The second half was woeful and share everyone's disappointment we should have pushed for a second and killed the game off but it went wrong with the sub. 

 

That said I think we need to keep some perspective. Our squad is slightly weaker than last time we went down. That's a fact.

 

Our new manager has barely had a preseason and we are only 6 games into the season. In that time we have barely spent a penny on improving the squad on sold some experienced heads. Jamie Vardy, Ndidi, Mads come to mind. 

 

He's also had to manage half the squad wanting transfers away and no doubt some egos Faes, soumare etc and the winks situation. 

 

We have played some good passages of play. We have come back from behind. He has been reactive and changed the line up several times in just 6 games. Monga is now starting. Page has been in and around it etc. Apart from last night the subs have actually been timely and quite good. 

 

We know there have been issues in the changing room. Players on high salaries wanting away etc. 

 

Keep calm and give the guy a chance. Had we won last night we would have been second in the auto promotion spots depsite all of the above. We were literally a Vesty brain fart away from that and then it would be a completely different converation on here. 

 

 

[Stormfox]

3 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Okoli is crap, Faes is crap, Vesty is slow, Nelson is injured.

Winks and James in midfield is a given as we saw

The transfer window is closed

We have little money even if it were open

 

How about we stop relying on our wingers and flood the midfield, play two 10's, or God forbid, a 10 and two strikers, just for a change of pace?

 

 

Nelson isn't injured.... Not sure where this comes from

[Dan]

Like I said the other day we just play dirge and slow football. We've become the total antithesis of everything we were in 2016 - we're obsessed with unthreatening ball retention. Our chance creation has been woeful for absolutely years now.

 

Even yesterday where I actually thought we did knock it around fairly well for a while, for pure chance creation we really haven't forced much at all. It was probably a fair result on the whole - and Wrexham weren't good.

[lcfc sheff]

Not enough chances created in central positions, rubbish corners, inverted wingers meaning not enough crosses first time. These are just basics that need to be addressed 

[Dahnsouff]

5 minutes ago, Stormfox said:

Nelson isn't injured.... Not sure where this comes from

Comes from the ever reliable internet  

 

Although that is perhaps more of a concern

[l444ry]

The mask is slipping. He's looking like just another pound shop Pep that preaches keeping the ball is everything, even if you go nowhere with it. Wish we could turn the clock back to when the most important things were being better than the opposition in either box. Too many modern day Coaches have sucked the enjoyment out of football with their chess board tactics. Most of it is shite anyway.