Marti Cifuentes - Style of Play, Tactics and Analysis

[Groby_Blue]

Really enjoyed that analysis, and it killed 90 mins on a slow work day. 

 

Mav was superb in this division last time, as was Winks, and they both have the added incentive of other players ready to take their place if they go off the boil. 

 

Feeling really positive about this season now and very much looking forward to it. 

[Guest]

My uninformed, surface-level take is that it looks like, where Martin would have been Enzoball taken even further, Cifuentes is maybe a small step in the opposite direction i.e. we're still going to be looking to control games and dominate possession but with a bit less rigidity and more freedom for players to express themselves and act independently of the structure. Theoretically that sounds nice.

 

I hope everyone realises and accepts that however positive and attacking he wants us to be, there will still be occasions, maybe quite a few of them, where we're having to patiently move the ball around trying to unpick a team with everyone sat on the edge of their box and no intention of engaging with us whatsoever. 

[Mark_w]

5 hours ago, Stadt said:

It's a fans forum. If we could only post about facts without making assumptions then there would be 1/20th of the threads on here.

[coolhandfox]

7 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

Mavididi is a bit of a dick, Winks thinks he's better than the squad, it's amazing how good some of you lot are at deep psychological analysis of people you've never met before.

 

Really wish FoxesTalk would ****ing knock it off sometimes. We don't actually know what goes on at the club and I can't really blame anyone for having their morale hit by the year we've just had, in particular them having to work with two absolutely honking managers.

 

Enzo came in and turned Jannik Vestergaard - who had been completely frozen out - in to one of our two or three most important players on the way to promotion. Who knows who Cifuentes will like and be able to get a tune out of? Everyone pretty much just gets a clean slate, as far as I'm concerned. 

 

Wink and Mavididi will still be two of the best players in the championship.

 

They were both fine under a competent manager. 

[Finnegan]

37 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Wink and Mavididi will still be two of the best players in the championship.

 

They were both fine under a competent manager. 

 

And yet half of FoxesTalk wants to sack them off for not being brilliant in the league above, when nobody else was.

 

[adejo92]

7 hours ago, Groby_Blue said:

Really enjoyed that analysis, and it killed 90 mins on a slow work day. 

 

Mav was superb in this division last time, as was Winks, and they both have the added incentive of other players ready to take their place if they go off the boil. 

 

Feeling really positive about this season now and very much looking forward to it. 

I actually thought he spent a big part of the season pretty poor.

 

Took him being dropped to see any improvement in his performances.

[moore_94]

 

[SecretPro]

18 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

 

I like that lad. 

[kingfox]

Will be interesting to see how aggressive he intends us to press, his QPR side were actually one of the least aggressive pressing teams in the Championship last season. Seemingly more structured rather than an Andoni Iraola Bournemouth type of pressing style for example. 

[Scoop Dog]

WiFi on holiday doesn't work properly. What's the YouTube channel to find this video please?

[Scotch]

Obviously, we can't really read much into the training videos. It is a tiny clip of what the club want us to see but he looks involved. Someone who demands respect and doesn't take crap, which I suppose is why he clashes with those above him so much but we need that and we need someone who can control the dressing room. I hope it is him. 

[RyCleary]

1 hour ago, SecretPro said:

I like that lad. 

He’s back 👀 

[Foxin_Mad]

5 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Wink and Mavididi will still be two of the best players in the championship.

 

They were both fine under a competent manager. 

There comes a point if they are still here and the manager chooses them that we have to wipe the slate and base our analysis on this years performances. No one exactly covered themselves in glory and we need to try and clear some of the negativity until we’ve watched the managers work for a few months. 

[Lambert09]

Looking back at their results last year there’s something that stands out for me. 
 

His QPR team who spent in the bottom 5 of teams, took points off of all 3 promoted sides (as well as sheffied u) 

 

That is genuine evidence that he’s tactically good because if you’re able to pick up points off of teams that much better than you, then the only way to achieve that is typically tactically. 

[LestaLad]

11 minutes ago, Scoop Dog said:

WiFi on holiday doesn't work properly. What's the YouTube channel to find this video please?

His name is Jacob Horsfall, so just type that in. 

[Dr The Singh]

I heard he gets all of his footy knowledge and Tactics from every forum site of the side he joins and replays them on windows xp version of champoinship manager.

[Bordersfox]

6 hours ago, Guest said:

My uninformed, surface-level take is that it looks like, where Martin would have been Enzoball taken even further, Cifuentes is maybe a small step in the opposite direction i.e. we're still going to be looking to control games and dominate possession but with a bit less rigidity and more freedom for players to express themselves and act independently of the structure. Theoretically that sounds nice.

 

I hope everyone realises and accepts that however positive and attacking he wants us to be, there will still be occasions, maybe quite a few of them, where we're having to patiently move the ball around trying to unpick a team with everyone sat on the edge of their box and no intention of engaging with us whatsoever. 

But that'll be the fault of the boring death by passing football we are playing, not the fact the team against us have 10 behind the ball.  

[Deeg67]

10 hours ago, Guest said:

My uninformed, surface-level take is that it looks like, where Martin would have been Enzoball taken even further, Cifuentes is maybe a small step in the opposite direction i.e. we're still going to be looking to control games and dominate possession but with a bit less rigidity and more freedom for players to express themselves and act independently of the structure. Theoretically that sounds nice.

 

I hope everyone realises and accepts that however positive and attacking he wants us to be, there will still be occasions, maybe quite a few of them, where we're having to patiently move the ball around trying to unpick a team with everyone sat on the edge of their box and no intention of engaging with us whatsoever. 

He's very much in the modern Spanish orthodoxy, which is a sort of evolved spin on Cruyff's total football. In that system interchangeability is crucial - you don't want the opponent always knowing where everyone is going to be. In the Spanish style of it you often see teams line up with no true striker, and given the makeup of our current squad I wouldn't be shocked to see Cifuentes employ that a lot.

 

The similarities with Enzo seem very tenuous to me. Apart from both wanting to dominate possession I think they're more different than alike.

[Sly]

9 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

And yet half of FoxesTalk wants to sack them off for not being brilliant in the league above, when nobody else was.

 

79% of this squad is very good for this division. At this stage, without additions, I still think we “potentially” have the best team on paper. We just need a forward that we are confident will hit double figures.  

[LCFCJohn]

3 hours ago, Sly said:

79% of this squad is very good for this division. At this stage, without additions, I still think we “potentially” have the best team on paper. We just need a forward that we are confident will hit double figures.  

It feels like there are some workings and calculations involved in the figure 79% 🧐

[Greg2607]

I think realistically, we need to accept that we aren't going to have a main striker hitting double figures.  Our goals are going to come from elsewhere. 

 

Having had the luxury of vardy for so long, it's going to take us time to adjust as a fan base.  Every striker we ever sign is going to look crap in comparison.  

[trooky]

15 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

And yet half of FoxesTalk wants to sack them off for not being brilliant in the league above, when nobody else was.

 

They also wanted to sack a manager when top of the league 😂, so says it all really. 

Edited 17 July 2025 by trooky

[Richmondfox]

11 hours ago, kingfox said:

Will be interesting to see how aggressive he intends us to press, his QPR side were actually one of the least aggressive pressing teams in the Championship last season. Seemingly more structured rather than an Andoni Iraola Bournemouth type of pressing style for example. 

Just seeing our squad pretend to press would be a start. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

12 hours ago, moore_94 said:

 

I was cautiously optimistic after watching this. Not sure Monga will start in the 10 immediately but I think we have a decent base of personnel for Marti to work with.

[Bourbon Fox]

On 15/07/2025 at 21:34, LVFox said:

If the players were missing Enzo, they should relish this in comparison to Cooper and RVN.

 

Strikes me as similar to Enzo but with a little more risk in the final third. More rotations rather than complete tactical discipline, but definitely similar principles and shape.

 

 

I feel like the early days of Enzo were more chaotic, in a positive sense, and we got the ball forward more incicively due to player movement.

 

The Liverpool game early on was a good example, we were breaking the lines more and it seemed like the wingers had more licence.

 

As things progressed we seemed to be more bogged down.