Cifuentes OUT

[worthosoriginals]

16 minutes ago, Tuna said:

Needs help with actual proper signings, it's a shame we are an unserious football club.

You need help with grammar and thinking

[winteriscoming]

Pleased for Cifuentes today. 
Still not fully convinced by him but I’m hopeful we can go on a decent run. 
He’s gradually doing what the majority want him to do. 

The alternative with these clowns is Russell Martin who is dreadful. 
I still wish he’d of gone with youth from the start of season but at least he’s banished the egos of Faes and Winks which is a start. 
It’s took him to long to realize what he should have done but it looks like he’s getting there. 
 

[LCFCJohn]

16 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Shhhhh. You are not allowed to bring up anything that didn’t go brilliantly under Enzo. 

Brilliant Fox might actually be Winks 🤔

[cityfanlee23]

Fantastic display today and huge credit has to go to MC who has finally over the last few games changed his awful tactical system and favoured more of a block midfield. Still not back over the fence yet, but if we can string another 3-4 performances like this together I'll be back on board again. So much hangs in the balance and relies on us going up this season, financially we could be back on a stable footing if we go up/finally get rid of big earners in summer, but just as important in our rebuild is going up would allow us to sign the likes of JJ, because he's going to the prem with or without us and teams like Palace will be waiting to snap him up if we fail to get promoted. 

Marti needs to continue to set us up in a similar way to today.

[Donwebbio]

There are still question marks over some of his decisions and whether they players are executing his instructions but deserves credit for the way the team have played since the first half against Sheff U. The players are definately playing for him. He deserves credit for (finally) playing Nelson, for figuring out that Winks & Faes are the toxic twins, getting the best out of Lurch, Skipp and Reid. He has struggled with his subs but the squad is very thin and not many options available to him.

 

If we can get Ramsey back so we have 2 no. 10 options, get rid of Faes & Winks in Jan and then help him with some actual signings then things will look good.

Edited 13 December 2025 by Donwebbio

[MrsJohnMurphy]

I'm not a fan at all but if he goes then any new manager brings Winks and Faes back into the team guaranteed 

[st albans fox]

Still can’t get past that second half debacle at Ashton Gate with the daka sub. 
Did anyone ask him about it ?

[Sankey93]

I’m not a fan of Marti but I’ll give him some credit today! Last 3 games bar the second half shit show at Ashton gate has impressed me he was shouting them to get forward today on the touch line and has started to find his correct 11. However I’m still certain he will fail with this bunch of players due to his game management and tactics which are non existent.

[JimJams]

A big criticism was that his QPR side had a low goals per game rate and we were very much in the same boat.  Lately that's improved.  Hopefully it can become the new norm, rather than the peak.  10 goals in the last 4. 

[Jimmy]

I still feel he is a little slow to make changes but his game management was better today, that said I think Ayew needed to come off at the same time Bobby did

[grth2004]

Seems like he’s finally finding some kind of winning formula and a stable team. Chopping and changing the team was causing us to be inconsistent in my

view but he seems to finally realise that some players are better off out of it and he’s got his best line up. 
 

[Raj]

Hold...

[l444ry]

Have to say that Marti cut a very agitated figure on the line at times today, continually waving his arms about, yelling at the players to get higher up the pitch and even when the opposition had possession in our own half. Luckily for him, the players seemed to pay little attention. That high line has been a problem to the side during this season so not sure what his thinking was in going back to it. Probably feeling the pressure and doing it for supporters effect?  He need not have worried as it was a brilliant victory. 

[iancognito]

His biggest problem all season has been squad depth - none of his subs ever work, the players coming on aren't doing what they need to do or aren't experienced enough to do so and he can't affect games. At 3-0 up we had a bit more leeway today and getting an hour's performance instead of a half is an improvement. 

[HankMarvin]

9 minutes ago, iancognito said:

His biggest problem all season has been squad depth - none of his subs ever work, the players coming on aren't doing what they need to do or aren't experienced enough to do so and he can't affect games

It’s the Championship, one of the reasons he took the job because of how many good young players are here. 
You talk about said depth like we are coming up against Prem teams. It’s relative to the opponents. 

[Corky]

He comes across as a good bloke who is probably a limited coach. Took over a very tough situation, made some early progress but regressed quickly. Now appears to have got a first eleven and style of play that fits.

 

Lots to work on but we are improving generally.

[oldbluefox]

Tbh he’s not had a great lot to deal with just a load of individuals out of form, some switched off and wanting away and others just going through the motions, a situation which appeared to run through the club. JJ has been a revelation but it needed that Sheffield United fiasco to show we had hit rock bottom. Booing them off at half time underlined how far we had sunk. 
Clearly the tactics whatever they were weren’t working but they came out with renewed vigour we had not seen before playing a much more energetic and exciting brand of football. Has Marti turned a corner with them? Has he learnt from his mistakes? Shifting Faes and Winks has been a positive and the players look as though they are responding. There are still issues but there are seeds of optimism following some good performances. The next few weeks will tell. 

[filthyfox]

Shit manager....   get rid!  

[Noahfence]

Something seemingly changed after Sheffield United. We’re still not amazing but we look “better” even if the second half at Bristol City was a disgrace. 
 

Nelson coming in has been a huge positive. He’ll make mistakes but he’s not a bomb scare like Faes. No idea what’s happened with Winks but Skipp & James look brilliant together. 
 

I like that we now have Aluko, Thomas, Page, Evans on the bench. I think this has to be the aim. Keep giving them minutes off the bench. 
 

I feel like we’re a better LB & ST away from being a good side. Maybe. 

[C.J]

Slowly getting better, looks like they've learnt from Wednesday (bar the stupid, unnecessary goal we gave them). He's ousted the two bad apples (Winks & Faes). Given Skipp a new lease of life. Antonio will be a good addition hopefully, get a couple of loans in during January. Not been delt a great hand but he's getting on with it. I'm sure there's still people who want rid though!

[Ian Nacho]

Hopefully we've turned a corner. He'd lost me after the Sheff United game but there has been some glimpses of the last week that he's starting to pull things in the right direction. 

[Aleksz]

Found his best team of what he’s got. Took a while but he’s got there I think. Now to see if he can keep it going.

[AjcW]

All I want to know is why it took 18/19 games to realise what was wrong.

 

Why it took 18 games of Soumare and Winks

 

Why it took almost as many games of Faes

 

Is it out of his control? Was he being forced to play the high earners? Was the big confrontation reported after the Sheff Utd game actually Marti losing it with JR and saying certain players have to go? 
 

Has there been some sort of Cambiasso style team meeting/tactical shift and Marti is riding the wave? 
 

As always we’ll probably never know any of this!! 
 

If we can maintain this level of directness and fast attacking play and if we can build in some resilience and give him a few more players he’s confident of bringing off the bench, then we might just be okay.
 

Huge, huge game for him next weekend for many reasons.  

[Loxm]

2 hours ago, l444ry said:

Have to say that Marti cut a very agitated figure on the line at times today, continually waving his arms about, yelling at the players to get higher up the pitch and even when the opposition had possession in our own half. Luckily for him, the players seemed to pay little attention. That high line has been a problem to the side during this season so not sure what his thinking was in going back to it. Probably feeling the pressure and doing it for supporters effect?  He need not have worried as it was a brilliant victory. 

you've read that horrifically wrong in my opinion... he was instructing the players to press when they occasionally switched off. They listened, and it worked. Complaining about having a passionate manager on the touchline is a new one!

[cityfanlee23]

The thing is, there was a good opportunity for us as fans to feel like the club was really turning a corner this season (if we chose to see our situation optimistically)

 

- Top gave a somewhat of an acknowledgement that the club and fans are distant and need to come closer 

- DOF being moved to a new role and the club adopting a system used by the likes of Brighton and Brentford 

- Finances somewhat under control given we are talking about paying for a Technical director 

- Huge earners leaving soon 

- 3 of our summer signings have been an improvement and 2 of the 3 fit the blueprint of player that made us successful 

- Multiple youth players that could end up being prem players and we are in the perfect division to build them (silver lining of relegation) 

- some of the best facilities in the world 

 

All we needed was for Marti to get the most out of the players we had and keep us in touch with the playoffs then pray for a good result in the final, up until now despite us being 4points from 3rd we’ve been awful, poor tactical decisions, a system that doesn’t work and seemingly refusing to change it. If we play like we did today in most games for the rest of the season and we manage to move some players on in January and bring in some more young, hungry talent, this could really be the point where the club rebuilds.