Marti Cifuentes - Style of Play, Tactics and Analysis

[Paninistickers]

Just had a Brentford pre season vid pop up on my feed and sat and watched for 10 mins as Ive found their approach - mental and tactical - to the PL interesting for the last 4 seasons or so. The detail on shape. Lots of shouting to get into shape when game is in a certain phase.  The team meeting on shape. 

 

I know it's Andrews now not Frank, but I'd guess the approach is fairly ingrained by now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bordersfox]

@StriderHiryu will you be doing another video on Cifuentes style/tactics after the Sheffield Wednesday game? 

[The Year Of The Fox]

Can’t see anything about his triple parallelogram? 

[davieG]

Cool As Leicester ·

Follow

 

The Heathcote Arms, Croft was the Leicestershire pub of choice for new Leicester City manager, Marti Cifuentes and his assistant Xavi Calm, after a little explore of their new county this week.

Drinks, chatting with locals and fans, and fish & chips, obviously.

P.S. If you're local, The Cheeky Cod's pop-up fortnightly on a Wednesday at the pub.

P.P.S. This lovely community pub is featured in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and well worth a visit. Good choice, Marti.

via Guillem Balague

 

 

 

Let's hope he's sober when he dreams up his tactics or maybe we shouldn't 

[Groby_Blue]

8 hours ago, davieG said:

Cool As Leicester ·

Follow

 

The Heathcote Arms, Croft was the Leicestershire pub of choice for new Leicester City manager, Marti Cifuentes and his assistant Xavi Calm, after a little explore of their new county this week.

Drinks, chatting with locals and fans, and fish & chips, obviously.

P.S. If you're local, The Cheeky Cod's pop-up fortnightly on a Wednesday at the pub.

P.P.S. This lovely community pub is featured in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and well worth a visit. Good choice, Marti.

via Guillem Balague

 

 

 

Let's hope he's sober when he dreams up his tactics or maybe we shouldn't 

Does Guillem live in Croft or around there? He used to go to the Heathcote with Enzo as well. 

[GingerrrFox]

8 hours ago, davieG said:

Cool As Leicester ·

Follow

 

The Heathcote Arms, Croft was the Leicestershire pub of choice for new Leicester City manager, Marti Cifuentes and his assistant Xavi Calm, after a little explore of their new county this week.

Drinks, chatting with locals and fans, and fish & chips, obviously.

P.S. If you're local, The Cheeky Cod's pop-up fortnightly on a Wednesday at the pub.

P.P.S. This lovely community pub is featured in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and well worth a visit. Good choice, Marti.

via Guillem Balague

 

 

 

Let's hope he's sober when he dreams up his tactics or maybe we shouldn't 

Cobs on the bar. Beautiful. You’ve heard of tapas Marti but you ain’t had a burnt cob filled with Red Leicester and raw onion lad 🤤

[Winstonthedog]

30 minutes ago, GingerrrFox said:

Cobs on the bar. Beautiful. You’ve heard of tapas Marti but you ain’t had a burnt cob filled with Red Leicester and raw onion lad 🤤

Onion and cheese each need to be at least 1 inch thick or its not a proper cob 

[StriderHiryu]

 

 

Analysis of the game against Fiorentina, as well as our overall thoughts of preseason as a whole.

 

Despite uncertainties off the pitch, the team looks extremely well coached and I am excited to see us play this season!

[Winstonthedog]

1 hour ago, Winstonthedog said:

Onion and cheese each need to be at least 1 inch thick or its not a proper cob 

And the onion has to be so bitter .   Your pulling a face like you've got your balls in a rottweilers mouth 

[Guppys Love Child]

2 hours ago, Winstonthedog said:

Onion and cheese each need to be at least 1 inch thick or its not a proper cob 

Bang on. 

 

And proper butter as well, from a block, it has to be salted. None of that margarine/ I can't believe its not sh1t.

[Bablemikey]

Just on that awful touch that Daka had, I think that the defender got a toe on it and slightly deflected the pass, which then wrong footed Daka & led to that touch that put the ball way out from him. So maybe we are all being a bit harsh on him for that one.

[bosnianfox1884]

2 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

Analysis of the game against Fiorentina, as well as our overall thoughts of preseason as a whole.

 

Despite uncertainties off the pitch, the team looks extremely well coached and I am excited to see us play this season!

wife and kids sent out of the house, btg and tv , on 

[Keiriel]

2 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

Analysis of the game against Fiorentina, as well as our overall thoughts of preseason as a whole.

 

Despite uncertainties off the pitch, the team looks extremely well coached and I am excited to see us play this season!

As always, another banger of a video! I would like to point out an extra little positive, though. Leading up to the Daka/McAteer chance, it was Kasey drawing the Fiorentina defenders away, leaving space for Winks to slip the ball in. It's the kind of thing we saw Vardy do all the time and it's safe to say that Kasey's done his homework. I mean, we saw during the last Championship campaign how effective he could be, but his overall footballing intelligence has surely grown since then. Well, minus that period between Enzo and Marti when we had no manager for some reason.

[adejo92]

From what ive seen its a bit Enzo'esque only we actually attack and arent boring as fvck.

 

[cityfanlee23]

 

[BKLFox]

On 05/08/2025 at 21:59, Bablemikey said:

Just on that awful touch that Daka had, I think that the defender got a toe on it and slightly deflected the pass, which then wrong footed Daka & led to that touch that put the ball way out from him. So maybe we are all being a bit harsh on him for that one.

Defender did could see it straight away but not worth mentioning on here 

[BKLFox]

1 hour ago, cityfanlee23 said:

 

Is this lad using these as demo tapes to get a job doing new car reviews?

 

“..now mooooving on to the INTERIOR it all looks very STYYLISH with fabrics that wouldn’t look out of place in a millionaires mansion, take a look at that glossy dash no cheap plastic here but sadly that’s where it ends, look beneath that glitz & glamour and IT ALL becomes a little more Saffron Lane than Saffron Walden….”

 

I’m only messing much better pitch than a monotone drone but I can’t help but hear it in that car reviews style…keep them coming if someone on here thou 👍 

[UniFox21]

Think it'll be a bit messy tomorrow, they've only had few weeks to go through the style. Southampton looked a mess earlier and they've had much longer 

[StriderHiryu]

Our latest episode:
 

 

You can probably guess exactly what the talking points were if you saw the game!

 

• Being caught out of position on transition

• Being outmuscled and losing the physical battle

• Magnificent Monga

• A lack of pace at the back

• Not enough Support for the wingers

Add to this the lack of willingness to run from some players and it looks like a challenging season ahead as it stands...

[Grebfromgrebland]

We haven't the players to play possession based football anymore. We don't have the skill, strength, intelligence or willing to make it work. 

 

With the pace we have it has to be counter attacking even against so called poorer teams. 

 

Without Bilal we're never breaking teams down.

[Uncle Monty]

26 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Our latest episode:
 

 

You can probably guess exactly what the talking points were if you saw the game!

 

• Being caught out of position on transition

• Being outmuscled and losing the physical battle

• Magnificent Monga

• A lack of pace at the back

• Not enough Support for the wingers

Add to this the lack of willingness to run from some players and it looks like a challenging season ahead as it stands...

F bombs at the end with Ayew 😂. Surprised you were able to keep your composure that long. 

[Richmondfox]

13 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

We haven't the players to play possession based football anymore. We don't have the skill, strength, intelligence or willing to make it work. 

 

With the pace we have it has to be counter attacking even against so called poorer teams. 

 

Without Bilal we're never breaking teams down.

If Thomas and JJ had half a brain and made the effort, when they saw the wingers being closed down and doubled up on they could’ve simply ran into the space ahead of them and dragged players away rather than standing back, watching and waiting for the ball to come back so it can be passed backwards. 
 

It’s worrying that a caveman like me can see this a mile off yet the players and manager can’t or can’t be bothered to try this simple tactic called a 1-2. 

[kingfox]

22 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

We haven't the players to play possession based football anymore. We don't have the skill, strength, intelligence or willing to make it work. 

 

With the pace we have it has to be counter attacking even against so called poorer teams. 

 

Without Bilal we're never breaking teams down.

At Championship level, personally I still think we do, albeit unlikeable players, we still have a good chunk of the squad that got promoted under Maresca. 
 

My current fear is our work out of possession, and Strider hits the nail on the head with the points made. 
 

Getting dicked on transition has been my fear for the past two seasons. I feel Marti ball requires high energy, especially in the midfield area, consisting of players who can track back, make recoveries and win possession. We don’t really have the personnel to make that currently work imo, Winks and Soumare are just not defensive enough. 
 

Losing Ndidi really didn’t help on the physical aspect of our squad. Even though his form did tail off, he was still our main midfielder in terms of tackling, intercepting and aerial ability. We desperately need to replace his attributes. 
 

Then that problem of getting hit on transition just exposes our lack of pace at the back. Vestergaard obviously needs pace around him or you simply shouldn’t play him. 
 

I feel Marti ball requires athleticism, but we don’t have enough of it. 
 

If we don’t rectify that issue in the next couple of weeks, then our chances of being in the mix of promotion diminishes imo. 

[jv1]

270 mins in a week - I haven’t got a clue what he is trying to do - nobody is inverted - the full backs heat maps confuse me - 2 holding mids that don’t get into the final 3rd - a 10 that doesn’t create - wingers that have been absolutely pocketed for 250 of those mins - a striker that can’t run and nobody running past him - and absolutely nobody who knows where the net is - bizarre tactics to win any game at any level -no death by possession - no real style of build up play - looks like a complete hit and hope to me -concerning is a monumental understatement 

Edited 20 August 2025 by jv1

[Iwebema]

1 hour ago, StriderHiryu said:

Our latest episode:
 

 

You can probably guess exactly what the talking points were if you saw the game!

 

• Being caught out of position on transition

• Being outmuscled and losing the physical battle

• Magnificent Monga

• A lack of pace at the back

• Not enough Support for the wingers

Add to this the lack of willingness to run from some players and it looks like a challenging season ahead as it stands...

Great analysis.

 

I still feel for Marti, whilst he hasn't done himself any favours playing Vestergaard in his system who causes you more problems than he solves. He's been dealt a terrible hand, so many players just arent applying themselves, it's difficult to completely criticise when he must be trying to get his methods across to arrogant and uninterested players who have actively downed tools for the previous 2 managers.