Marti Cifuentes appointed new manager

[HankMarvin]

1 hour ago, Bordersfox said:

Firstly, a real, tactical insight into what we did poorly against PNE

The worrying thing is he has more experience in dealing with losses in the Championship than wins

[whoareyaaa]

1 minute ago, HankMarvin said:

The worrying thing is he has more experience in dealing with losses in the Championship than wins

Probably because he has/had poor squads to work with

[Paninistickers]

For those old enough to remember, this season has shades of 2003 under Micky Adams.

 

Financial shambles, an overpaid squad of PL veterans and a general depressed gloom, made worse when Matt Piper was sold

 

Second game of season we were bummed 6-1 away at Ipswich.

 

The happy end is that Adams soon pulled it round ( a stabilising 0-0 for game 3) used the gloom to create that siege mentality and we barely lost again. 

[CosbehFox]

1 minute ago, Paninistickers said:

For those old enough to remember, this season has shades of 2003 under Micky Adams.

 

Financial shambles, an overpaid squad of PL veterans and a general depressed gloom, made worse when Matt Piper was sold

 

Second game of season we were bummed 6-1 away at Ipswich.

 

The happy end is that Adams soon pulled it round ( a stabilising 0-0 for game 3) used the gloom to create that siege mentality and we barely lost again. 

Not for me. Those players in question were a different type of personality as can be attested by the will to work with the club through administration. 

 

It’s more like Pearson on his second return with the likes of Matt Mills, Jermaine Beckford and Neil Danns on the books. 

[trooky]

3 hours ago, lcfcbluearmy said:

Just think back to when you were 16 and think how you would have handled the pressure of being told that you were the clubs best player and had to start every game and perform to your best otherwise the club wouldn’t achieve there goals. It’s a lot and that sort of pressure is how you break people and get them to burn out at such a young age. Yes he’s really good yes he should play a significant part but it’s not “just football” it’s a highly pressured situation infront of tens of thousands of highly opinionated fans. You have to realise how much that is to deal with at 16 and that he has to be managed.

 

I was also just refuting your claim that's he's given time to youth players, he hasnt really - and again he has given significant time in pre season and started Nelso, Monga and alves in the cup and brought page on at half time. It’s only been two games in the championship ffs

Agree, and he's also performing in front of fans that want Daka, Faes, Vesty, Winks, Thomas, JJ, Soumare, Skipp Choudhury and Ayew all to fail and leave the club.

 

Its no atmosphere to out so much pressure on a 16y year old

[HankMarvin]

2 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

Probably because he has/had poor squads to work with

My point is with you lose more than you win, you become well versed in “offering tactical insight about the losses”

I’ll wait to see if he adapts, and stops making selection errors before offering praise for his insight.

 

3 games 

Wednesday were awful and we were fortunate, they just got pummelled by Stoke at home.

Huddersfield cup defeat the first time in about 40 plus years we have gone out in the first round.

A defeat to Preston one of the early relegation favourites, who secured their status in the league in the last game of the season last year.

 

 

[Guy]

8 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

For those old enough to remember, this season has shades of 2003 under Micky Adams.

 

Financial shambles, an overpaid squad of PL veterans and a general depressed gloom, made worse when Matt Piper was sold

 

Second game of season we were bummed 6-1 away at Ipswich.

 

The happy end is that Adams soon pulled it round ( a stabilising 0-0 for game 3) used the gloom to create that siege mentality and we barely lost again. 

Luckily back then there was still no PSR/points deduction threat during that 2002-03 season under Adams when we went into administration at the start/during it of course, will we be as lucky this season in that regard?! That said we'd still have finished second and clear of Sheffield United in 3rd I recall had we got the points deduction and so would still have gone up... but there may have been more pressure on the players during the season as it went along if the potentially hefty points deduction had applied

Edited 17 August 2025 by Guy

[whoareyaaa]

3 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

My point is with you lose more than you win, you become well versed in “offering tactical insight about the losses”

I’ll wait to see if he adapts, and stops making selection errors before offering praise for his insight.

 

3 games 

Wednesday were awful and we were fortunate, they just got pummelled by Stoke at home.

Huddersfield cup defeat the first time in about 40 plus years we have gone out in the first round.

A defeat to Preston one of the early relegation favourites, who secured their status in the league in the last game of the season last year.

 

 

I agree there is a lot that needs changing but I believe he will and it's not being helped by the performances of some players who he probably thinks he can rely on, also no incoming signings but still a lot of things he could do differently he's not been here long enough to be judged yet.

 

Time will tell I guess.

[honeybradger]

29 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

Oh absolutely. But honey badger also can't say we never let him break through.  We wanted him to be a CB and he didn't want to be.   

 

He would also have needed to oust chilwell from the team in order to break through in what was his "preferred" position.  

He left because he wasn't getting game time. If we had played him at centre back in the cups he would have likely accepted, it would be silly for him not to. At the time we were playing Fuchs and Morgan at centrebacks in the cups instead of him who were on their last legs here.

 

He was also around when Luke Thomas broke into the first XI at left back, at the time I rated Bassey higher but was pleasantly surprised with how Thomas performed. So he wasnt competing with Chilwell, he was competing with Thomas at left back at the end of the season.

 

Not to forget that disastrous Ryan Bennett loan where we could have used Bassey instead.

 

So there were plenty of opportunities to give Bassey gametime, we just never did it.

 

 

Edited 17 August 2025 by honeybradger

[moore_94]

3 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

He left because he wasn't getting game time. If we had played him at centre back in the cups he would have likely accepted, it would be silly for him not to. At the time we were playing Fuchs and Morgan at centrebacks in the cups instead of him who were on their last legs here.

 

He was also around when Luke Thomas broke into the first XI at left back, at the time I rated Bassey higher but was pleasantly surprised with how Thomas performed. So he wasnt competing with Chilwell, he was competing with Thomas at left back at the end of the season.

 

Not to forget that disastrous Ryan Bennett loan where we could have used Bassey instead.

 

So there were plenty of opportunities to give Bassey gametime, we just never did it.

 

 

But a big part of him leaving was also because we wanted to develop him as a centre back which he didn’t want to do

 

So I highly doubt playing him as one in the cups would’ve made any difference

[HankMarvin]

5 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

I agree there is a lot that needs changing but I believe he will and it's not being helped by the performances of some players who he probably thinks he can rely on, also no incoming signings but still a lot of things he could do differently he's not been here long enough to be judged yet.

 

Time will tell I guess.

A running theme through a lot of the managerial failings.

BR needed new signings before it went to shit

Enzo in January got disappointed and made a point when going through the poor spell.

RVN needed new signings 

Marti needs new signings 

[honeybradger]

1 minute ago, moore_94 said:

But a big part of him leaving was also because we wanted to develop him as a centre back which he didn’t want to do

 

So I highly doubt playing him as one in the cups would’ve made any difference

How do we know this? 

 

Surely no youth player turns down first team minutes if offered them irrespective of the position. If he saw a pathway to the first team at centreback im sure he would have taken it. I think it was likely that he was unsettled by being moved to centreback in the u23s by Thomas but wouldnt have minded had it lead to him playing in the cups and ending up as 3rd choice centre back for us.

[when_you're_smiling]

23 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

He left because he wasn't getting game time. If we had played him at centre back in the cups he would have likely accepted, it would be silly for him not to. At the time we were playing Fuchs and Morgan at centrebacks in the cups instead of him who were on their last legs here.

 

He was also around when Luke Thomas broke into the first XI at left back, at the time I rated Bassey higher but was pleasantly surprised with how Thomas performed. So he wasnt competing with Chilwell, he was competing with Thomas at left back at the end of the season.

 

Not to forget that disastrous Ryan Bennett loan where we could have used Bassey instead.

 

So there were plenty of opportunities to give Bassey gametime, we just never did it.

 

 

He was competing with Chillwell as well. Bassey left a month before.

 

Even if he did break through which must have looked unlikely at the time behind a current England international and Thomas, what makes you think he wouldn’t be as currently maligned as the current home grown crop like Thomas, McAteer, Choudhury?

[Dan]

The most damning thing for me is I don't think it would look much different under Van Nistelrooy.

 

Which begs the question, where the real issues are.

 

I'll give him some benefit of the doubt, for now, because he is new and because of those pigs 'running' this club he's playing on the back foot as they ****ed off on holiday for three months.

 

But make no mistake if he isn't ruthless about this with the piss takers (which is genuinely >50% of the squad unfortunately), and isn't demanding severe action from the board then he'll lose me. We need a strong character and this would prove he's not really it.

[Claudio Fannieri]

11 minutes ago, Dan said:

The most damning thing for me is I don't think it would look much different under Van Nistelrooy.

 

Which begs the question, where the real issues are.

 

I'll give him some benefit of the doubt, for now, because he is new and because of those pigs 'running' this club he's playing on the back foot as they ****ed off on holiday for three months.

 

But make no mistake if he isn't ruthless about this with the piss takers (which is genuinely >50% of the squad unfortunately), and isn't demanding severe action from the board then he'll lose me. We need a strong character and this would prove he's not really it.

I think the biggest issue at the moment is the lack of 2 high energy midfielders. Last time  in the championship we had KDH, Ndidi, Praet and even Casadei who would be box to box and create overloads which meant our wingers had support and also could make more use of space, whilst if like yesterday teams doubled up on our wide players, these midfielders could then exploit the gaps.
 

Look at us now our midfield options are Skipp, Winks and Soumare not one of those are box to box midfielders who will break lines with runs or even with there passing, it’s all so safe and the game tends to be played in front of them, this means it’s really easy for teams to double up on our wide players safe in the knowledge that we don’t offer an attacking threat from our midfielders. 

Edited 17 August 2025 by Claudio Fannieri

[Dan]

33 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I think the biggest issue at the moment is the lack of 2 high energy midfielders. Last time  in the championship we had KDH, Ndidi, Praet and even Casadei who would be box to box and create overloads which meant our wingers had support and also could make more use of space, whilst if like yesterday teams doubled up on our wide players, these midfielders could then exploit the gaps.
 

Look at us now our midfield options are Skipp, Winks and Soumare not one of those are box to box midfielders who will break lines with runs or even with there passing, it’s all so safe and the game tends to be played in front of them, this means it’s really easy for teams to double up on our wide players safe in the knowledge that we don’t offer an attacking threat from our midfielders. 

I did think when people were saying we'll still wipe our arses over the rest of the league they were missing quite how different it is this time to last.

 

Last time we had Hermansen, Doyle, Coady (I know but arguments sake), Casadei, Ndidi, Yunus, Dewsbury-Hall and Vardy. I've probably missed someone.

 

That's a hell of a lot of that side gone. We've got a worse goalkeeper, we haven't really got anyone the same as Doyle, Casadei would start for us now (and he wasn't great), Ndidi was obviously still our best midfielder. El Khannouss is a neat footballer but he's a mile off being as productive as Dewsbury-Hall even at this level. Nobody's getting near Vardy's 18 goals.

 

And then you've got players like Winks, Vestergaard and Mavididi. The circumstances are different for them this time around. There was a freshness with them two years ago that simply isn't there this time around. Look at how it's turned for Winks.

 

The midfield is the root of it. It's a major problem now. Soumare seems to have this ability to do something neat every now and then that gives him a pass for the fact he can't defend, he can't create, he can't score. A totally useless and ineffective player. Skipp, I knew we'd overpaid but I can't believe he's this bad. He's just bizarrely terrible. He wouldn't start for someone like Oxford based on what I've seen for us. Then you have Winks - he's better than the other two and he's done more for us than those two, but he's clearly a bad egg, he clearly isn't happy here. He's got a very inflated opinion of his own ability for somebody who just went an entire season without starting in a win. You need all three gone and three bringing in, but there is virtually no chance of achieving this with these people running the show.

 

We're in for a really miserable season and this is going to be the case until the owner leaves. If people can't see it now they simply don't want to. He oversaw the most voluntary relegation in Premier League history and made absolutely zero fundamental changes off the back of it. He lost me beyond repair after the summer of 2023. Everything that's happening now is what I thought would happen and I would say under him we are likelier to leave this league to League One than the Premier League. I really do think he's that bad.

Edited 17 August 2025 by Dan

[nnfox]

4 hours ago, Bordersfox said:

Having finally calmed down enough to watch Cifuentes post match interview a couple of things encourage me.

 

Firstly, a real, tactical insight into what we did poorly against PNE - a far cry from the vague waffle of Cooper or RVN.  Secondly, no shying away that there are issues within the team dynamic.  He's not a fool and identifying issues is the first step towards solving them. He needs help from Top though with some new blood.  

When the manager makes comments such as:

 

"I'm very aware of the task I have in my hands. I'm very aware of the dynamics of the team unfortunately...so it's not going to be an easy task but I'm 100% committed to change things.  It's not going to be an easy ride."

 

He sounds like a guy who needs backing from the fans, not the blame.

 

 

[lcfcbluearmy]

2 hours ago, trooky said:

Agree, and he's also performing in front of fans that want Daka, Faes, Vesty, Winks, Thomas, JJ, Soumare, Skipp Choudhury and Ayew all to fail and leave the club.

 

Its no atmosphere to out so much pressure on a 16y year old

Exactly if we were performing well and he could have a free role with minimal pressure then that's completely different 

[Bordersfox]

1 minute ago, nnfox said:

When the manager makes comments such as:

 

"I'm very aware of the task I have in my hands. I'm very aware of the dynamics of the team unfortunately...so it's not going to be an easy task but I'm 100% committed to change things.  It's not going to be an easy ride."

 

He sounds like a guy who needs backing from the fans, not the blame.

 

 

And I think the vast majority do back him.   

 

I do find it bizarre that some are already critical of his decision making to the point they are starting to lose faith is him as a manager.  We've had two league games and none of us are privy to player performance in training or attitude overall.

 

I don't back managers blindly but there are some very serious squad issues to contend with and he deserves time.  90% of people moaned like fvck at Enzo, Cooper and RVN not being proactive with subs.  Cifuentes has been very proactive.  He has recognised issues with morale and on pitch performance.  

 

Loads of things to moan about but at this point, Cifuentes shouldn't be one of them.  

[Claudio Fannieri]

4 minutes ago, nnfox said:

When the manager makes comments such as:

 

"I'm very aware of the task I have in my hands. I'm very aware of the dynamics of the team unfortunately...so it's not going to be an easy task but I'm 100% committed to change things.  It's not going to be an easy ride."

 

He sounds like a guy who needs backing from the fans, not the blame.

 

 

Absolutely he has inherited a massively bloated and unbalanced squad full of very average, yet overpaid ego’s and then some very very talented youngsters who really need the support and guidance from a number of senior pros. And yet here we are with a large % of the squad looking for the exit door and a don’t look at me guv type attitude to our plight. 
 

Marti has been dealt a shit hand in terms of what he can work with and i get the feeling he is trying to protect the younger players so not to throw them under the bus too early in their careers, whilst trying to keep as many of the wantaways in the shop window to benefit the financial position. 
 

I actually think he has been fairly ruthless, Skipp hauled off at half time last week, BEK this week proves he doesn’t care about reputation if you are not doing it he will act, the issue is he is currently managing with both hands behind his back. 
 

He has managed Monga brilliantly and i think Nelson will be integrated soon enough as a starter. He hasn’t minced his words or made excuses in his post match interview and he has clearly identified the issues and no doubt the rotten apples, if the board support him i think he can have a similar impact as Pearson but he needs the time and support to see this through and i have no doubt it won’t be pretty but it needs to happen for the long term benefit of LCFC 

[Ric Flair]

There is major disarray. The squad is disjointed which is not then easy for a manager to be as effective as they may be able to but it's quite damning that this soon in to his reign they look way off it.

 

This isn't about ability yet for either the manager or players. This squad, whilst is full of questionable characters with some noticeable areas of weakness are good enough to compete at this level but they won't with the current attitude they have. As we saw 3 seasons ago, when you have the perfect storm of deep routed malaise and a large number of players running their contracts down and/or don't want to be here and it's very much a possibility to massively under perform and get relegated.

 

Could and should Marti get a better output from this lot if we are comfortably outside the top 6 after 5-6 games? Theoretically yes, but this is probably more on them than him in the short to medium term.

 

He's not necessarily doing himself many favours picking certain players and I think he could and should have taken a harder stance with some of them to make it clear they should move on but he's probably well aware there's no guarantee they would go, nor will he likely get many or any incomings like Enzo got so he'd then be left with even less of a relationship with some of this lot. How Soumare and Ayew got 90 minutes yesterday though is beyond me. Soumare has cost a few other managers before and I hope he doesn't fall in to the same trap. He has to sort the midfield and quickly.

 

I hope Wednesday and yesterday has been a wake up call for the club, we cannot rely on a squad that on paper should still be good enough as their mentality is arguably more important than talent. We must get some fresh personnel in, do whatever it takes to move 3-4 more of them out and then beg, steal and borrow for some key additions through the spine of the team.

 

 

 

 

[eblair]

4 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

For those old enough to remember, this season has shades of 2003 under Micky Adams.

 

Financial shambles, an overpaid squad of PL veterans and a general depressed gloom, made worse when Matt Piper was sold

 

Second game of season we were bummed 6-1 away at Ipswich.

 

The happy end is that Adams soon pulled it round ( a stabilising 0-0 for game 3) used the gloom to create that siege mentality and we barely lost again. 

More 2005

[funkyrobot]

I think Martí must now see that many of our established pros can’t be trusted. They’ve let him down in consecutive games. Against Charlton I think he should play Aluko in one of the full back roles, Nelson in central defence and get Page to play the Soumare role. I’d also bring Alves and Evans back on to the bench. Play the kids Marti. 

[LCFCCHRIS]

1 minute ago, funkyrobot said:

I think Martí must now see that many of our established pros can’t be trusted. They’ve let him down in consecutive games. Against Charlton I think he should play Aluko in one of the full back roles, Nelson in central defence and get Page to play the Soumare role. I’d also bring Alves and Evans back on to the bench. Play the kids Marti. 

I’ve seen next to nothing of Evans but would like to see him start tbh. 

[Richmondfox]

3 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

I agree there is a lot that needs changing but I believe he will and it's not being helped by the performances of some players who he probably thinks he can rely on, also no incoming signings but still a lot of things he could do differently he's not been here long enough to be judged yet.

 

Time will tell I guess.

Hopefully he has enough data and he can move on from the clean slate he has spoke about.  Let’s see if he actually does anything about it and changes Ayew and Soumare to start with. Try and get JJ and Thomas to actually help the wingers rather than offering nothing in attack or defence.

 

If he sticks with them thinking his style of football and managerial tactics is all what’s needed for our donkeys to listen.  We will just end up with a 4th shit manager by Jan and another clean slate with the useless players that have failed with the 3 before him. 
 

Cooper stinking us out beyond the sacking.