Cifuentes OUT

[JimJams]

He needs to sort that press out.  There isn't one.  You occasionally see a player rush an opponent and everyone else is just backing into our half.  Be interesting to see how many forced turnovers there are in our opponents half.  It's gotta be low.

[Foxin_Mad]

We absolutely should be sacking this clown, he’s some how conspired to make us even more shit than we were. Any manager with 

any slight bit of managerial skill can do half decent in this league. 

[Clever Fox]

19 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

 

not many other championship teams have a 16 year old playing..

He may be playing but he's not delivering.  While we can't be too critical of a 16 year old, he has to learn that it's a team game and he doesn't always have to beat a man.

We seen it today and in other games where he has a chance to play it inside and go down the line for the return and doesn't. Which achives exactly what he's trying to do in getting in behind the FB.

Instead of getting kicked pushed or losing the Ball.

Now just to be clear, He's not the only one doing the same. We've seen it from Fats, Mav and Ayew. Holding the ball to long and losing it. That's mainly down to the Manager.

[Dames]

8 minutes ago, JimJams said:

He needs to sort that press out.  There isn't one.  You occasionally see a player rush an opponent and everyone else is just backing into our half.  Be interesting to see how many forced turnovers there are in our opponents half.  It's gotta be low.

Thats because our recruiting department and owners are still stuck in 2010 where they think possession alone will win a game. I’ve not seen us press since the early days of Rodgers. 

[lcfc_forever]

On 22/10/2025 at 17:34, kingfox said:

I think there’s a few worrying factors we are currently seeing, but in terms of the last paragraph and the midfield, not replacing Ndidi’s attributes could hurt us in the long run imo. In terms of defensive duels this season, of midfielders in the Championship…

 

Skipp ranks 52nd

James ranks 76th

Soumare ranks 85th

Winks ranks 94th

 

This is from a list of 96 players. For possessions won, our midfielders don’t fare much better either.

 

Midfielders not doing the business on transition just exposes our mistake ridden centre backs. Luckily if you believe in xG, we’ve conceded less than expected, but we rank as the 7th worst team in the Championship in that statistic, that needs drastic improvement, otherwise it will probably catch up with us in the long run. 
 

I think our play has become predictable, teams don’t fear us nowadays when they perhaps did in 23/24. Is this team also physical and athletic enough, I also have my concerns regarding those aspects. 

This is spot on, exactly the weaknesses we showed today.

 

Ndidi is a huge miss as you say, football has moved more towards physicality and athleticism and that doesn't suit many of our players - Winks is being nullified as a result. 

 

It explains why he put Soumare in but his laziness is a big problem.

 

Either go 3-5-2 or bring Hamza into the middle of the park to give us some bite as he's happy to take on physical duels. We need to go back to the tactics earlier in the season and be more defensive, hitting sides on the counter as we just don't have the right profiles to play a high line as we keep getting hurt on the transition. 

[Mapperleyfox]

Our problem isn’t talent, it’s work rate, desire , and a willingness to compete, win battles and do the ugly stuff. That should be a minimum and the manager should set this expectation. The fact these players aren’t willing to work and do the basics is telling. Has nothing to do with coaching.

[Bptiger]

Well it’s happened, two in a row and I guess more to come , when the club can’t get its ducks in a row , this is what u get . No centre forward , crap fullbacks and a coach who rewards players who don’t do anything on the park . 

[Ian S]

I think he is gone this week.

[foxile5]

He's working with duff tools. However, he isn't working well with them regardless. 

[Bob Weasel Fox]

2 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

He's working with duff tools. However, he isn't working well with them regardless. 

Poor workman always blames his duff tools 

 

🥴😳🤣😂

[foxile5]

1 minute ago, Bob Weasel Fox said:

Poor workman always blames his duff tools 

 

🥴😳🤣😂

A shit workman can't blame his tools. I should know. 

[Bob Weasel Fox]

14 minutes ago, Ian S said:

I think he is gone this week.

Followed by Top and King Power hopefully 

[Iwebema]

37 minutes ago, Ian S said:

I think he is gone this week.

I would be very surprised, we are only 2 points off the play offs (which tells you how rubbish this league is) given how much time it took for us to sack RVN etc. Will only be hard-core fan and player pressure like there was on Cooper, which hasn't come yet.

 

Hes certainly in the hot seat though, hes not going to be allowed any more mistakes.

Edited 25 October 2025 by Iwebema

[Dan]

The entire debate around Cifuentes just sums up how utterly hopeless the club is nowadays.

 

I'm quite decisive about these managers and getting increasingly impatient. I've been unconvinced pretty much since the opening day when we bundled past a team I'd have expected just about anybody in the EFL to have beaten on the day with the squad they had available and the fact they hadn't even played a single friendly - it felt harder to not win and we scraped it. That entire thing was a red flag.

 

We ended up having an OK August despite the disgrace at Preston with 3 wins out of 4, without playing particularly well. Comparisons to Maresca's start I thought were kind the performances looked well off it to me even despite these results.

 

So for me he started unconvincingly and has pretty rapidly declined to just looking pure NPC, absolutely nothing about the bloke. We have no style of play, no obvious first XI, we have despite our bleak financial situation STILL refused to make any potential short-term pain, long-term gain moves that clubs like Sunderland (poignant example) did a few years ago. I'm not one of those who would just play the U21 side in every game but I think we had a quite unique situation where it was pretty imperative to put some emphasis towards doing this and we still didn't have the balls to actually do it. That falls at his feet. As somebody who doesn't really believe in the 'stability' sort of buzz word, stability for the sake of stability, for me I'm happy to dispense with him already. I'd caveat this by saying if another manager was to come in and repeat this, they'd have probably under 10 games for me as well. There is literally nothing, NOTHING good about what he's done here. He's been Van Nistelrooy bad.

 

But then you remember the reason he is here in the first place. We were the 3rd club in the division to confirm our status as a Championship side for the 2025/26 season behind Birmingham and Southampton. Yet were the 23rd club in the division to have a manager in place, ahead of Sheffield Wednesday who are clearly a joke anyway. They wasted months for absolutely no good reason. We inadvertently had an advantage with knowing where we would be, a chance to get ahead of the pack, yet just dozed off and let far inferior resourced clubs gazump us anyway.

 

This is some of the most inept procedure you will ever see in sport. I think in pure footballing terms Aiyawatt & Rudkin are arguably even worse than Chansiri because as egregious as the latter is, and as disgusting as he is, he didn't have the benefit of inheriting a club that were on the cusp of European football. The sheer level of incompetence needed to even be in this division from that position is staggering.

 

Then you remember that these are the same people who would be selecting the replacement. It's just beyond hopeless. The probability of them landing on the right man is probably about as close to Tottenham winning the Premier League this season. It would take a pure freak, pure luck.

 

Cifuentes should go but the chance we get the right replacement are basically nil as well. Cifuentes, like Van Nistelrooy before him, only regains any credibility for me if he starts publicly making life hard for the board. But I would imagine he was selected precisely because they were confident he wouldn't do that.

 

We're in terminal decline. Make no mistake - unless we by some miracle are sold in the next couple of years, Aiyawatt is taking us to historical lows. He's the most inept owner in the EFL today.

[don_danbury]

keep him until april pls then appoint alan pardew 

[MPH]

2 hours ago, Clever Fox said:

He may be playing but he's not delivering.  While we can't be too critical of a 16 year old, he has to learn that it's a team game and he doesn't always have to beat a man.

We seen it today and in other games where he has a chance to play it inside and go down the line for the return and doesn't. Which achives exactly what he's trying to do in getting in behind the FB.

Instead of getting kicked pushed or losing the Ball.

Now just to be clear, He's not the only one doing the same. We've seen it from Fats, Mav and Ayew. Holding the ball to long and losing it. That's mainly down to the Manager.

 

oh I agree with this completely.  But the point I was making is that he is at least playing the young players. That’s one stick we can’t hit him with..

[filbertway]

20 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

oh I agree with this completely.  But the point I was making is that he is at least playing the young players. That’s one stick we can’t hit him with..

Well hes not. Hes playing the youngster. 

Any othera are lucky if they make the squad of about 20

[Dan]

6 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

Probably to try and not upset the dressing room before Jan, look what happened with Rudd when he pulled out Winks and Vesterguard, it's probably coming from the top

Should be an instant dismissal if true - not strong enough.

[Dan]

4 hours ago, sm1 said:

How can a team like Millwall, amongst many others, have 2-3 players on our wingers yet their wingers waltz around the pitch without a care in the world. A midfield of James, Winks & Ramsay with Abdul and Mavididi/Monga on the wings, should be top level for this league. You can only assume the way our team is set up to both attack and defend is not good enough. Marti has to take responsibility for that. Every squad has its pros and cons, the best managers highlight the pros whilst hiding the cons.

They have better players in a fair few positions and actually have consequence at their club for being rubbish - I would assume. ****ing Millwall are better than us. What the ****.

[Chrysalis]

3 hours ago, JimJams said:

He needs to sort that press out.  There isn't one.  You occasionally see a player rush an opponent and everyone else is just backing into our half.  Be interesting to see how many forced turnovers there are in our opponents half.  It's gotta be low.

Yep, it looked so bad on both of Hull goals, Hamza briefly pressed, and then that was it, but cant be just one player, has to be done as a unit.

 

I feel the lack of press is either a motivational problem, or a fitness problem. 

Edited 26 October 2025 by Chrysalis

[accessory]

40 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Well hes not. Hes playing the youngster. 

Any othera are lucky if they make the squad of about 20

Two youngsters - Monga and Silko Thomas.

 

Both are currently at a level we should expect from an academy overseen by Jon Rudkin.

 

We've been fed the myth for months that Seagrave has a pool of emerging talent ready to take the Championship by storm.

 

But the reality, as we're finding out game by game, is somewhat different.

 

Given we've lost NINE players since the end of last season from a squad already short on quality and depth, this is a serious issue.

 

Raging at Cifuentes and making him the latest fall guy won't drive the current malaise away from the club.

 

Only the removal of Rudkin can do that.

Edited 26 October 2025 by accessory
Correcting spell check.

[Dan]

48 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Well hes not. Hes playing the youngster. 

Any othera are lucky if they make the squad of about 20

Yeah bit he plays Monga. Box ticked. Nothing to see here. This sort of argument is getting increasingly annoying.

[MPH]

1 hour ago, filbertway said:

Well hes not. Hes playing the youngster. 

Any othera are lucky if they make the squad of about 20

aluko, 18, page, 17, monga 16.. all have played this season.    I think that’s decent.

[gurru991]

3 hours ago, Ian S said:

I think he is gone this week.

I don't think the club can afford to fire him !!

[SafewayFox]

45 minutes ago, MPH said:

aluko, 18, page, 17, monga 16.. all have played this season.    I think that’s decent.

Aluko hasn’t had a sniff which is criminal.

 

Page was played to make the lad sign and whilst Winks was sulking like a little child.

 

Alves and Nelson who actually have Championship experience, were deemed not needed or “training well” yet not making the squad.

 

Marti’s treatment of the academy here is not a positive.