Marti Cifuentes appointed new manager

[dmayne7]

1 hour ago, honeybradger said:

Managers usually start out they will look to go on. Only Thomas and Stolarczyk in the starting XI, who are already established, and only Monga coming off the bench, shows how much he is willing to trust the academy players. Very little.

 

0 non established academy players starting and only Monga coming on, who might actually be the best footballer we have so him being a sub is below what you would expect.

 

In respect to Evans if you go off performances in pre season i would argue that he was no worse than Skipp, Mcateer, Daka yet they get opportunities and he doesnt. Sadly the non-established players do not have a level playing field with the established players among fans and managers. The good performances of the non established players get dismissed and the bad ones lead them to be instantly labelled as not ready. Meanwhile the established players can regularly drop clangers and still be in the matchday squad.

 

Aluko for example was our best defender in pre season before he got inexplicably dropped down the pecking order. How is he supposed to stake a claim for a first team spot when he plays excellently then is denied chances to establish himself further. 

@Chelmofox has given you a great reply I think. For what it's worth, I'm absolutely desperate for as to see the young players in there and he'll have a big mark against him if we don't see a lot of Alves, but Nelson not becoming first choice in particular.

 

Also worth remembering that he wasn't here for half of pre-season so has missed some of the games that help you build trust in the younger players. He comes into the building having to form his own opinions as there's nobody at the club who he'd really trust in that respect.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

1 hour ago, Tommy Fresh said:

It's one game

And there’s a cup game on Tuesday! 
 

Some people 😣

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Has no-one spotted a couple of impressive things from today? 
 

1.) Set-pieces (Ayew aside) 

 

These were decent today. More than decent, we scored from two and created chances from others.

 

2.) We were getting players in the box when we got the ball wide - 3’s and 4’s waiting for the ball in - and quite often that included one of our fullbacks. 

As a base to build a season on these are good signs.

[Mickyblueeyes]

An active manager so far. The switch at half time and tweaks won us the game. It was very easy to tell the lads to keep doing what they are doing in the first game but he took the bold step to bring in Winks. Throwing Monga on and getting Justin on as soon as they went down to 10 - again, acting, taking risks. 
 

Good first day. He is still very new to the squad and it’s surrounded by uncertainty. Very likely by next week, he’ll have to tweak again with sales. 
 

 

[Blue.Fox84]

Seems invested in the club/fans and has successfully been able to change the game with game management. Better than the sh!t we’ve had since Enzo, hope he does well and the club actually support him properly 

[Collymore]

4 minutes ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

2.) We were getting players in the box when we got the ball wide - 3’s and 4’s waiting for the ball in - and quite often that included one of our fullbacks

This is still our biggest issue in my opinion. "Waiting for the ball"  We just don't seem to have worked on movement in the box when we get the wingers into a good position. 

 

Also it was clear to see Wednesday (especially first half) were targeting our wingers and letting all the shite sit on the ball like Soumare, Vestergaard etc. Better teams - i.e everyone else will do it better! 

 

It was only when they basically fell physically apart from lack of fitness we started to look dangerous.

 

We won't come across many disjointed, unfit sides like them for the rest of the season so basically this was a freebie. 

 

How Sky gave Winks MOTM over Ayew or Fatawu was laughable. Lucky guy as if he had started and Skipp had come on second half, or any footballer with two legs, would have got MOTM as they were completely shot. I don't think there was any football played from 60 to 70 mins due to their cramp and theoratrics. Fair play the officials adding it on mind. 

 

Thought we looked very disjointed as a whole today and everything Marti had mentioned as his blueprint we couldn't have looked further from it. 

 

 

[Dan]

I'll give him some slack as he's got the most incompetent possible seniors sabotaging him. If dross like Soumare are anywhere near this side in September I'll worry.

[honeybradger]

8 hours ago, Chelmofox said:

No way should Monga be starting over Mavi in the season opener. But, as the season goes on, he will get starts. Monga was fantastic when he came on and significantly better than his showing against Fiorentina. 

 

I am confident Nelson will feature more and more, and have a hunch Faes is likely off anyway.

 

Page isn't at the level yet. But I do think he will nudge his way in or get a loan.

 

Alves will feature more if we trim the squad. Expect him to start the cup game.

 

Aluko i am sure will feature more. But hes not ready yet.

 

IMO Evans didnt look the level in pre season and i dont see how anyone can complain he hasn't made the 1st team squad today. I think he is a year behind Monga.

 

I get it but management is hard. Its a long season with potential cup runs. As things settle down and we potentially get a few more outgoings i think we will see one or two more come through, but i dont think its worth bashing on day one.

 

I also think its harsh to say 'its pretty grim'. The best way to manage the youngsters is to give them the best chance of succeeding and growing. Lets judge Marti on this by Christmas, not 10th August.

I'll take it on the chin that maybe im overreacting for the first game of the season. For me the first game is important as like your first step it decides your direction but a lot can change over the season.

 

In my opinion a lot of these players are ready for us contrary to your opinion.

 

Nelson

 

Excellent loan at this level and impressed more and more each game in pre season. He shouldn't be 'featuring more and more' he should be starting, end of really. Vestergaard and Faes scored yesterday and played well, fair enough. They're still never going to be good enough for where we want to be and have let us down time and time again. Either die a slow death with them being just about good enough for the championship or give Nelson a chance and hopefully he develops into a PL level centreback.

 

Aluko

 

Has impressed with every chance he has been given. He hasnt had a bad performance for us yet, whether it was a cameo in the PL or in pre season. Justin was pretty poor the other day and Thomas was not much better, for my money Aluko is a better option than both of them. I challenge you to show me a match where Aluko was 'not ready' based on his performances. It's unfair to him that he's being held at arms length by manager and fans, not much more he can do to break through.

 

Page

 

Similar to Aluko please tell me one performance he has had that has suggested he is not ready. He has impressed with every opportunity he has had. On the contrary Skipp and Soumare have disappointed us constantly and did so again the other day yet will still continue to get regular starts.. He is a better option than those starting ahead of him and therefore should be starting or at least getting off the bench. It should really be that simple, players need to play/start based on merit, not based on wages or transfer fees.

 

Alves

 

Was also very good in pre season and has already proven to be a good option off the bench in the championship. I think he should be making the bench ahead of Mcateer who doesnt offer enough. Hopefully he is one of our first options off the bench by Christmas. If we're not giving him adequate minutes this season then he will never get them here and will go off to succeed elsewhere.

 

Monga

 

He's in our top 3 players alongside Fatawu and El Khannouss. Giving him occasional starts is less than his ability deserves and having Mavdidi start ahead of him reduces our chances of winning games. It's that simple really. He has to be first choice. It's been said on here before but we would bench Lamine Yamal if he came through here.

 

Evans

 

Maybe he's not ready. He only got 60 minutes at striker in pre season and I thought he played well. Kind of reminds me on when we stuck Kane on the wing and 2 seasons later he was the Premier League golden boot winner, cant really judge him if he's not playing in his best position. I think we would get more joy out of him at striker than Ayew or Daka.

 

One of my friends is related to a Premier League footballer and it gave me a lot of insight into how managers and fans overlook academy talents. He started out at a Premier League academy, got minutes here and there in the cup, some bad some good but not much else. You had some fans calling for him to get chances and others saying he hadn't impressed enough. They got relegated to the championship and again he wasnt given a fair shot. He ran down his contract and left to a League One side, within a year he was already at one of the big Scottish sides and a couple seasons later he made a £25mil move to a Premier League side. From not getting minutes in the championship to a £25mil move in 3 years and the manager that didn't give him a chance is still managing Premier League football next season.

 

Managers generally have a blind spot when it comes to academy players, even Guardiola let Cole Palmer leave. We had a similar situation with Calvin Bassey, who was advised by Maddison to leave to get a fair shot elsewhere. Simply put academy players are taken for granted even if they are better than the options ahead of them. We will only understand what we missed out on when they leave to succeed elsewhere.

Edited 11 August 2025 by honeybradger

[Lionator]

14 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

I'll take it on the chin that maybe im overreacting for the first game of the season. For me the first game is important as like your first step it decides your direction but a lot can change over the season.

 

In my opinion a lot of these players are ready for us contrary to your opinion.

 

Nelson

 

Excellent loan at this level and impressed more and more each game in pre season. He shouldn't be 'featuring more and more' he should be starting, end of really. Vestergaard and Faes scored yesterday and played well, fair enough. They're still never going to be good enough for where we want to be and have let us down time and time again. Either die a slow death with them being just about good enough for the championship or give Nelson a chance and hopefully he develops into a PL level centreback.

 

Aluko

 

Has impressed with every chance he has been given. He hasnt had a bad performance for us yet, whether it was a cameo in the PL or in pre season. Justin was pretty poor the other day and Thomas was not much better, for my money Aluko is a better option than both of them. I challenge you to show me a match where Aluko was 'not ready' based on his performances. It's unfair to him that he's being held at arms length by manager and fans, not much more he can do to break through.

 

Page

 

Similar to Aluko please tell me one performance he has had that has suggested he is not ready. He has impressed with every opportunity he has had. On the contrary Skipp and Soumare have disappointed us constantly and did so again the other day yet will still continue to get regular starts.. He is a better option than those starting ahead of him and therefore should be starting or at least getting off the bench. It should really be that simple, players need to play/start based on merit, not based on wages or transfer fees.

 

Alves

 

Was also very good in pre season and has already proven to be a good option off the bench in the championship. I think he should be making the bench ahead of Mcateer who doesnt offer enough. Hopefully he is one of our first options off the bench by Christmas. If we're not giving him adequate minutes this season then he will never get them here and will go off to succeed elsewhere.

 

Monga

 

He's in our top 3 players alongside Fatawu and El Khannouss. Giving him occasional starts is less than his ability deserves and having Mavdidi start ahead of him reduces our chances of winning games. It's that simple really. He has to be first choice. It's been said on here before but we would bench Lamine Yamal if he came through here.

 

Evans

 

Maybe he's not ready. He only got 60 minutes at striker in pre season and I thought he played well. Kind of reminds me on when we stuck Kane on the wing and 2 seasons later he was the Premier League golden boot winner, cant really judge him if he's not playing in his best position. I think we would get more joy out of him at striker than Ayew or Daka.

 

One of my friends is related to a Premier League footballer and it gave me a lot of insight into how managers and fans overlook academy talents. He started out at a Premier League academy, got minutes here and there in the cup, some bad some good but not much else. You had some fans calling for him to get chances and others saying he hadn't impressed enough. They got relegated to the championship and again he wasnt given a fair shot. He ran down his contract and left to a League One side, within a year he was already at one of the big Scottish sides and a couple seasons later he made a £25mil move to a Premier League side. From not getting minutes in the championship to a £25mil move in 3 years and the manager that didn't give him a chance is still managing Premier League football next season.

 

Managers generally have a blind spot when it comes to academy players, even Guardiola let Cole Palmer leave. We had a similar situation with Calvin Bassey, who was advised by Maddison to leave to get a fair shot elsewhere. Simply put academy players are taken for granted even if they are better than the options ahead of them. We will only understand what we missed out on when they leave to succeed elsewhere.

It’s a long ass season and they will get their fair share of chances with a thin squad. We saw how vital those early wins while playing crap were last time we were in the championship. 

[honeybradger]

1 minute ago, Lionator said:

It’s a long ass season and they will get their fair share of chances with a thin squad. We saw how vital those early wins while playing crap were last time we were in the championship. 

The point I'm trying to make is that chances as the season goes on isnt good enough.

 

I genuinely believe these youngsters are better than those players we have starting/coming off the bench right now.

 

They should be more involved not just for their own development but for us to have our best chance of getting in the automatic promotion spots this season. In my opinion they are being held at arms length simply because of their age/to not disrupt the senior players/to retain the value of the senior players for transfers. Not based on actual footballing merit.

[Greg2607]

13 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

The point I'm trying to make is that chances as the season goes on isnt good enough.

 

I genuinely believe these youngsters are better than those players we have starting/coming off the bench right now.

 

They should be more involved not just for their own development but for us to have our best chance of getting in the automatic promotion spots this season. In my opinion they are being held at arms length simply because of their age/to not disrupt the senior players/to retain the value of the senior players for transfers. Not based on actual footballing merit.

It's fair enough that, that is your opinion.  But you don't see how they perform day in and day out at training. 

 

The messaging HAS to be that you earn your spot. 

 

It might be that the youngsters are taking longer to learn the patterns of play, or they aren't quite physically strong enough. 

 

They will all get chances this year. Relax. 

[LCFCJohn]

14 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

The point I'm trying to make is that chances as the season goes on isnt good enough.

 

I genuinely believe these youngsters are better than those players we have starting/coming off the bench right now.

 

They should be more involved not just for their own development but for us to have our best chance of getting in the automatic promotion spots this season. In my opinion they are being held at arms length simply because of their age/to not disrupt the senior players/to retain the value of the senior players for transfers. Not based on actual footballing merit.

The Nelson one is criminal. Already proven himself at this level and could either make a big profit or play for many years. Instead we prefer Vestergaard and Faes who have no value and will leave on frees. Nelson has until 2027 on his contract. What incentive is there to stay beyond that?

 

Its actually made me hope Bournemouth come in for him before the end of the window having lost their centre backs. They know talent and he would excel there. 

[honeybradger]

31 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

It's fair enough that, that is your opinion.  But you don't see how they perform day in and day out at training. 

 

The messaging HAS to be that you earn your spot. 

 

It might be that the youngsters are taking longer to learn the patterns of play, or they aren't quite physically strong enough. 

 

They will all get chances this year. Relax. 

I think that's nonsense.

 

We were all over the place in the first half of last game and it took Wednesday breaking down physically after no pre season for us to make our mark on the game. There were no clear patterns of play from our senior players so that cant be a reason to exclude the youngsters.

 

'Not physically strong' give it a rest, I've seen Monga physically body Skipp and Vestergaard in the pre season training clips alone. I dread to think what is happening to them in the footage they arent showing.

 

If you think Monga, Aluko, Evans, Page and Nelson arent physically ready what does that make Winks, Skipp and Vestergaard? Winks is a feather in the wind, Skipp is clumsy and Vestergaard has no centre of gravity.

 

Alves you may argue is the only one who isnt great physically but he didn't show that in pre season. Also he had one of the highest dribble success percentages in the championship last season and a very high tackle success percentage for a winger, so his slight frame clearly didn't let him down.

 

It's strange to me how fans will scramble for reasons as to why academy players cant play but will similarly scramble for reasons as to why players like Skipp should be starting like 'he was good on loan at this level 5 years ago'.

Edited 11 August 2025 by honeybradger

[Greg2607]

3 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

I think that's nonsense.

 

We were all over the place in the first half of last game and it took Wednesday breaking down physically after no pre season for us to make our mark on the game. There were no clear patterns of play from our senior players so that cant be a reason to exclude the youngsters.

 

'Not physically strong' give it a rest, I've seen Monga physically body Skipp and Vestergaard in the pre season training clips alone. I dread to think what is happening to them in the footage they arent showing.

 

If you think Monga, Aluko, Evans, Page and Nelson arent physically ready what does that make Winks, Skipp and Vestergaard? Winks is a feather in the wind, Skipp is clumsy and Vestergaard has no centre of gravity.

 

Alves you may argue is the only one who isnt great physically but he didn't show that in pre season. Also he had one of the highest dribble success percentages in the championship last season and a very high tackle success percentage for a winger, so his slight frame clearly didn't let him down.

And that's ok. That's your opinion. I'm not going to change such strongly held beliefs. 

 

Nelson looks the real deal for sure.  The rest are relatively untested.  

 

My personal opinion is that Evans won't make it at the highest level based on what I've seen. 

 

Alves will probably carve out a decent championship career.  

 

Aluko and Page... No idea, we haven't seen enough. 

 

 

[whoareyaaa]

Good start to his reign changed the game really with his subs and got the win which is highly encouring only let down by the fans who booed at half and booed wout.

 

its going to take a few weeks until we have a more settled team as he works out what’s best.

 

Much more positive than the previous two managers 

[Winstonthedog]

12 hours ago, Tielemans63 said:

That's a huge worry for me. Have to be honest. We all knew that combination was never going to work...

We have no midfielders of quality and any combination will never make it work ... he need a striker and a dominant midfield leader, defence wise he has options to find an answer ... he still has players to return Soutar and Kristiansen so something could click ..... but one thing is definite we will need to score at least 2 goals  to win a game 

[Claudio Fannieri]

Marti and the club has to get off to a flier, we have a potential points deduction on the horizon and the back drop of a number of players wanting or needing to be moved on. 
 

We are not always party to what is happening in the background and I do think that potential deals out of the club is playing a big part in team selections, whether that is protecting players from injury or playing as leverage to secure better fees etc. I am not convinced yesterdays starting line up is the way Marti will or wants to go but he will be working alongside Rudkin to ensure we end up with the players we want out the door. 
 

It must be a difficult environment to be working in at the moment as there is still a number of players actively looking to move and a good few of these are high earners. Marti is at a big disadvantage over Enzo as he is a few weeks behind where Enzo was in being able to shift the deadwood last time round, so the air of positivity was in place at the start of the season, 2nd time round in the championship and we still have a number of deadwood hanging around and also a number of established players who don’t fancy it this time around. 
 

The club need to move fast now to get rid of these players and give Marti an opportunity to bring 3 or 4 of his own in. 

[broughtonblue]

Loved his walk round the pitch before the game clapping the fans, never seen that before. But then my next thought was, clever sod, if we had lost he wouldn't be doing a lap post match 🤣

[Fox on the Rox]

2 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

The Nelson one is criminal. Already proven himself at this level and could either make a big profit or play for many years. Instead we prefer Vestergaard and Faes who have no value and will leave on frees. Nelson has until 2027 on his contract. What incentive is there to stay beyond that?

 

Its actually made me hope Bournemouth come in for him before the end of the window having lost their centre backs. They know talent and he would excel there. 

Yep, and what example does that set for the next group coming through? They'll be looking at what happens to Nelson, Alves and even Braybrooke and wondering if they'd be better off trying to make it elsewhere than committing their early careers to Leicester. 

[StriderHiryu]

Despite the game feeling like a below-par performance, in game week one, we had the most shots on goal of any team in the league. Southampton had the highest xG, we were second. However, the disparity in squad value was also the highest in our game.

 

With 28 shots, that's the highest amount we have had in any game since the famous 9-0 win against Southampton, with 6 big chances also the highest amount created since that game.

 

 

[lcfc_forever]

One thing I noticed that was predicted from his time at QPR was the improvement on set pieces (we scored from 2 and should have scored from one other) and getting crosses into the box from wide areas quickly, leading to that Daka chance and the brilliant bit of defending to deny Mavididi. 

 

While there are some similarities with Enzoball, those two aspects stand out positively - shows we can mix it up and be direct to beat the low block. 

[StonyFox]

Just listened to a podcast that referred to our late win over a team in turmoil as embarrassing, when you look at some of the stats we were pretty dominant over the 90 minutes, plus the Wednesday team wasn't that bad after all the noise. Most touches in the final third, most shots and highest xG for - xG against in the league. Considering Martis has been with us less than a month and this was his first competitive match, I'm feeling pretty positive. He realised the tactics and player's weren't working, made a change and we looked far better after he did. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

50 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Despite the game feeling like a below-par performance, in game week one, we had the most shots on goal of any team in the league. Southampton had the highest xG, we were second. However, the disparity in squad value was also the highest in our game.

 

With 28 shots, that's the highest amount we have had in any game since the famous 9-0 win against Southampton, with 6 big chances also the highest amount created since that game.

 

 

It could have been 7-0 and the stats would have backed it up.

[Number 6]

The xG stats are a tad misleading for us and seem largely dependent on game state.

 

Up to the goal we had the much inferior xG, with Sheff Weds creating the better chances. They then get the goal and create a game state ripe for us to fill our boots with xG. 

 

Admittedly the same could also be said for Southampton to an extent. 

[AjcW]

Some nice takeaways for me

 

- Quick, impactful subs, not set in any sort of "must be after a certain time" way

- Visible and audible frustration, just as much as fans, when ball went backwards

- The style feels fluid, Jannick was encouraged to plough through the middle just as much as he was to ping balls over the top