Marti Cifuentes appointed new manager

[kingfox]

One thing that has annoyed me about Marti though is our pressing game, what we saw against Fiorentina has completely disappeared so far this season.

 

 Just looking at Opta’s statistics, and that evidence sticks out like a sore thumb, from the first six games, we rank…

 

24th for pressed sequences 

20th for PPDA

20th for high turnovers

 

What concerns me about these statistics, is the fact his QPR side were also one of the least aggressive pressing teams in the Championship last season. 
 

He has completely abandoned some of the principles that made us an exciting watch against Fiorentina.

[JJD_LCFC]

I just can’t stand seeing a team with Faes and Vestegaard. There is nothing we get from them at all. For 3 seasons we have seen them fail. I would much prefer to use some of our talented academy players. I would hate to see us lose Nelson for the sake of keeping Vesty and Faes. 

 

personally in defence I would play 

 

Hamza, Nelson, Okoli, Aluko 

with Ricardo in midfield with Winks 

 

hamza technically not great but can’t fault his work rate. I think this is the start of a team we can really get behind. 
Then attacking midfield 3 of with Fatawu, James, mavididi (Monga) 

youthful side that I think should be able to press throughout the game until subs are made. Play high intensity front foot forward. 

 

We make mistakes in defense anyway. Much prefer to see our academy players having a go. I don’t think results will be that different with this team compared to current line ups.
 

[Corky]

31 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Nothing like i expected so far. At this point I wonder if the anti youth policy comes from above.

 

Tactics are safe and team choices are safe, regardless of what managers say when they come in.

 

Still early, no real judgements from me till Christmas. Just a comment on the early signs.

Possibly it does. The bloke still has expectations on him despite the huge changes in the squad. You also have the issue that this lot will turn against you quickly and run to the owner.

 

Don't think we've been great but he is proactive with substitutions and the team isn't giving up after going behind. We do need to improve generally and he needs to take Ayew out.

[Muzzy_no7]

Like me and @Shaqq have said, the club are in the process of hiring a GK coach for Marti. 
 

They’re putting trust in him. 

[winteriscoming]

4 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

Like me and @Shaqq have said, the club are in the process of hiring a GK coach for Marti. 
 

They’re putting trust in him. 

Would it not make sense just to give that to Begovic? At least then the other keeper we signed will at least be on the bench. 

[MaidstoneFox]

Potter is available now...

[Sharpe's Fox]

1 minute ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Potter is available now...

Would rather have Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights.

[ClaphamFox]

11 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

Like me and @Shaqq have said, the club are in the process of hiring a GK coach for Marti. 
 

They’re putting trust in him. 

Hold on a sec though…
 

 

Edited 27 September 2025 by ClaphamFox

[Pita]

3 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Potter is available now...

 

3 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Potter is available now...

We got away with that one already 

[AjcW]

34 minutes ago, kingfox said:

One thing that has annoyed me about Marti though is our pressing game, what we saw against Fiorentina has completely disappeared so far this season.

 

 Just looking at Opta’s statistics, and that evidence sticks out like a sore thumb, from the first six games, we rank…

 

24th for pressed sequences 

20th for PPDA

20th for high turnovers

 

What concerns me about these statistics, is the fact his QPR side were also one of the least aggressive pressing teams in the Championship last season. 
 

He has completely abandoned some of the principles that made us an exciting watch against Fiorentina.

We had a “pressing game” in Ruuds first against West Ham. So it’s either players getting lazy… or it was never a system and more of a “showing off for the new guy” 

[Dames]

35 minutes ago, kingfox said:

One thing that has annoyed me about Marti though is our pressing game, what we saw against Fiorentina has completely disappeared so far this season.

 

 Just looking at Opta’s statistics, and that evidence sticks out like a sore thumb, from the first six games, we rank…

 

24th for pressed sequences 

20th for PPDA

20th for high turnovers

 

What concerns me about these statistics, is the fact his QPR side were also one of the least aggressive pressing teams in the Championship last season. 
 

He has completely abandoned some of the principles that made us an exciting watch against Fiorentina.

Its why he was hired, Top and Rudkin are stuck in 2010 when it comes to football philosophy. 

[Corky]

8 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Potter is available now...

No thanks.

[Joe90]

45 minutes ago, FoxinNotts said:

He wins the next one against Wrexham, and he's had a good start to the season. Fact

You’re forgetting what league we are in! 

[kingfox]

11 minutes ago, AjcW said:

We had a “pressing game” in Ruuds first against West Ham. So it’s either players getting lazy… or it was never a system and more of a “showing off for the new guy” 

Cifuentes is a guy who likes to bang on about the ‘Three Ps’, possession, pressing, positioning. 
 

But our pressing is already starting to correlate with his QPR side, a pressing structure that is not aggressive. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, FoxinNotts said:

Not possible 

Exactly 

[SafewayFox]

2 hours ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

You have actually highlighted the bit where I said we got in good areas then lacked quality in end product and decision making and then said it was a half truth and said the same thing in your own words 😳

Because we didn’t get into good areas as your post suggested.

 

You said “Our patterns of play were good in the first half”

 

Which is why I said that’s a half truth, we played amongst ourselves in our own half/middle of the park, if that’s good patterns of play then we have a different opinion on that.

 

Good patterns of play, in my eyes means we create clear cut chances, we actually have shots on target, that in a modern world would see us having a higher xG than 0.8 or whatever ours was.

[Mickyblueeyes]

Some of the posts on this thread just emphasise how tough a job Marti has. 
 

Do I think he has been perfect ? Absolutely not. Do I think he has a harder job than the majority of managers we’ve had in the last 10 years ? Absolutely.

 

Theres an issue with the 10 and striker role and he hasn’t spent a penny. Ramsey has got himself suspended for 3 games and Winks who is a rolls Royce at this level has only recently found himself back in. He now needs to get this lot playing together, without a pre-season, without certainty only a few weeks ago. He needs to work out who his 9 is but out of 3 of them, none of them are a shining light. 
 

Yet, we start this morning, 3rd. With 1 defeat. Being a goal down to WBA. And being a man down v Oxford. Mavididi missing the chance v Cov. Each game, though disappointing has a what if. These players are playing 90 plus for him every game. 
 

Couple of decisions to question. The half time sub yesterday. The players on the bench. The Bobby over Monga sub v Oxford etc. 

 

We are starting the season with a deficit due to the inept process of the board. You can’t fully judge this man until end of Oct/early Nov. Yet, he’s doing his job with a gang of players, most of which we could easily sell in Jan and think nothing of it. 
 

Reserve judgement for now. 

[FoxesTalker]

The away following gave him some audible support at the end last night which was good. Still very much the man to lead this club forward in my opinion. Also, even if it's only temporarily, we've gone up a place from 4th to 3rd after last night's draw. 

[winteriscoming]

As much as I want Marti to go with youth instead of the shit experienced players what manager realistically would do this straight away? 
Unfortunately majority of new managers will always side with experienced players over younger players. 
I just hope he realizes sooner rather than later that youth is the best option. 
 

[Claudio Fannieri]

1 hour ago, SafewayFox said:

Because we didn’t get into good areas as your post suggested.

 

You said “Our patterns of play were good in the first half”

 

Which is why I said that’s a half truth, we played amongst ourselves in our own half/middle of the park, if that’s good patterns of play then we have a different opinion on that.

 

Good patterns of play, in my eyes means we create clear cut chances, we actually have shots on target, that in a modern world would see us having a higher xG than 0.8 or whatever ours was.

We got into lots of good areas, 1st half both Abdul and Stephy got the ball in good areas but the quality of our final pass and or decision making meant we didn’t capitalise to create a good chance. I actually felt our build up play in the 1st half was as good as it’s been this season so far. 

Edited 27 September 2025 by Claudio Fannieri

[SafewayFox]

46 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

We got into lots of good areas, 1st half both Abdul and Stephy got the ball in good areas but the quality of our final pass and or decision making meant we didn’t capitalise to create a good chance. I actually felt our build up play in the 1st half was as good as it’s been this season so far. 

We’re clearly always going to agree to disagree on this one TBF.

 

I’ll just add that the only “proper” chance that we’ve created in the last 180 minutes of football was Stephy’s chance against Coventry

[Claudio Fannieri]

35 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

We’re clearly always going to agree to disagree on this one TBF.

 

I’ll just add that the only “proper” chance that we’ve created in the last 180 minutes of football was Stephy’s chance against Coventry

I actually think in relation to creating clear cut chances we do agree, however I think the quality of our build up play until we get in and around the penalty box was good in the 1st half we worked the ball around well played with patience when required but also played quickly when the opportunity presented itself, for some reason at the moment as soon as it gets to our front 4 we don’t seem to be able to break down defences to create genuine goalscoring opportunities. Partly this is down to many teams sitting deep with men behind the ball and often doubling up on Fatawu and Mavididi when required. 

[coolhandfox]

I bored off watching us play, but he needs more time.

 

Our CF and AMC are desperate, which is the making his job difficult.

 

We need to hope Ramsey is mustard when his served his ban.

 

 

Edited 27 September 2025 by coolhandfox

[Dan]

4 hours ago, kingfox said:

One thing that has annoyed me about Marti though is our pressing game, what we saw against Fiorentina has completely disappeared so far this season.

 

 Just looking at Opta’s statistics, and that evidence sticks out like a sore thumb, from the first six games, we rank…

 

24th for pressed sequences 

20th for PPDA

20th for high turnovers

 

What concerns me about these statistics, is the fact his QPR side were also one of the least aggressive pressing teams in the Championship last season. 
 

He has completely abandoned some of the principles that made us an exciting watch against Fiorentina.

That's bleak reading, it's not like we've even had that horrid a run of fixtures either.

 

There is no chance we're promoted with this level of performance, even in this league, which is possibly as weak as I remember it, we won't keep getting away with doing this.

[Nolucklcfc]

Needs time. So reactionary from some people.