Cifuentes OUT

[Lionator]

6 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Change the manager and then what? Let Rudkin and Top bring in a bigger numpty? 

 

We are going to be in this league for a few seasons, we're 8th, we aren't getting relegated. He hasn't had enough time yet.

 

Most people on here thought we were going town to League 1 this season. 

 

People acting like we have the Class of '92 in our youth ranks or something. 

 

It's the people above him than need to go. 

Agreed. A root and branch rebuild is actually way more important than scraping back into the premier league and setting the club on an even more destructive path. This season should be about stabilisation, get the deadwood gone in the summer and build a young team to develop over the next 2-3 so we can build something sustainable, as we have the financial resources but they’ve been used terribly. 
 

I highly doubt Marti is the long term man but changing the manager is going to do very little right now. It needs long term strategic thinking. 

[Manwell Pablo]

12 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Another massive liar in what he says and what he does. Get him gone. 

Well I didn’t want him in the first place and I still don’t want him now but I don’t see us realistically sacking him any time soon unless he loses a good two or three on the bounce. 

[smudgerfox]

38 minutes ago, Winstonthedog said:

.... my suspicion is that he has to pick certain players to justify the high wages they are being paid 

Can you explain how you think this works ?

 

We pay their humungus wages whether they play or not...what difference does it make if we select them or not...? 

 

i can see the players themselves may become disruptive, they'll be fed-up about missing out on win bonuses, it could affect their international careers, and there's the humiliation of losing your place to a teenager...

 

But the manager is perfectly entitled to point to the poor results and performances and say  earn your place back...

 

Just to take one example - our vulnerability on the counter is a repeat problem going back many seasons and if deploying the experience of Vestergaard and Faes is to have any purpose it must surely be used to find an on-field solution to this vulnerability. 
 

Yet time and time again opponents score near identical goals against us because half our defence is upfield and the rest can't deal with an opponent running at them ...

 

If we could see Faes and Vesty pointing and organising the defence positionally should the worst happen, I could just about stomach their repeated selection..

 

But as it is, I'd rather see Nelson and Okoli developing a partnership for the future..,

 

 

[Tommy G]

We've drawn a lot of games...suggesting we aren't potent in attack, its captain obvious but if we had a cpl of capable strikers we would be in the top 2 probably. We haven't got one never mind two, so we will continue to suffer until that changes.

 

You can argue whether Nelson should play, or Ricardo isn't playing enough, or Vesty is too slow but we can't put the ball in the back of the net - so all those prior points are just mute. 

 

As a fan base we circle like vultures and see the likes of Soumare, or Faes as the issue week in week out - if we were putting the ball in the back of the net they wouldn't even get mentioned. 

[Stuntman_Mike]

I'm still ok with him for now, as frustrating as he can be. 

 

I don't think we're too far away from having a decent run if we just focus more on attacking and bringing players through/into the team who actually have energy and something about them.

 

Soumare simply cannot be ahead of Ramsey, even if it means Ramsey playing 3 games in a week. James cannot be removed to accommodate anyone either.

[TheGoldenGod]

What's his obsession with him hooking JJ off? He plays full 90s for Wales, he' isn't unfit. Bizarre from Marti, feels like he doesn't trust him!

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, LiliansLeftPeg said:

Let's be fair here. He's stuck with Jakub who was anything but established before this season. He's integrating youth into training and he's rotated Page, Silko and Monga between matchday squads. You could even argue that keeping Hamza and Luke Thomas in and around the XI supports the vision of an academy 'production line'.

 

He's had 12 competitive games and **** all pre season to assess the youth while working out which of the senior team he can trust and has us at the right end of the league while doing so. 

Naaah bollocks, that doesn't wash with me. Luke Thomas is an FA Cup winner with about 100 PL appearances, don't mask young and academy players for the likes of him and Hamza, they're mid twenties. Like us signing Schlupp back and pointing to an academy graduate.

 

I'd argue since he's cast the likes of Page aside and reintergrated Faes and others that have continually failed here we have undone any zest and good work ethic he may have tried to build in the short pre-season he had on the back of what Kingy had done pretty well. Since then we've won 1 in 7 FYI.

[Happy Fox]

He can get in the bin as far as I am concerned, not the manager for us, we would be better off giving the managerial gig to Andy King.

[murphy]

18 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Agreed. A root and branch rebuild is actually way more important than scraping back into the premier league and setting the club on an even more destructive path. This season should be about stabilisation, get the deadwood gone in the summer and build a young team to develop over the next 2-3 so we can build something sustainable, as we have the financial resources but they’ve been used terribly. 
 

I highly doubt Marti is the long term man but changing the manager is going to do very little right now. It needs long term strategic thinking. 

I don't agree.  Both promotion and rebuild are possible at the same time and it will be much easier with Premier League money. 

 

The point is moot anyway unless we change tactically as it looks as though we have already been sussed by the rest of the league.  We are easy to play against so promotion is not looking likely. 

[Ric Flair]

I have seen enough. Our stats are way off on almost everything bar scoring world's and our keeper saving us from having considerable fewer points than we do.

 

Our chance creation is poor, which is quite clear with only 1 goal from our strikers in 11 games. Whilst all 3 of them look way off it, they don't even miss chances to get annoyed about and a lot of that is from the players behind them and the pitiful patterns of play.

 

Despite our possession dominance we gift the opposition a lot of chances and the quality of the chance is scarily high too. This is with a system that has two quote defense minded full backs that don't go forward in Thomas and Hamza. It is a little more adventurous with Ricardo plays but he inverts more often than not and isn't joining the attacks like you might think he would. Zero goals or assists in 11 games from Thomas is poor, but what's even worse is the defensive mistakes that cost us. Out of position, even though never in attack, it's beyond unacceptable and a lot of this is on the manager.

 

Fundamental flaws in the system, being asked of players who's attitude stinks, who've repeatedly failed and let the club down and yet Marti has opted to go with them over a nucleus of players who align with the idea he likes to waffle on about but then not carry out. This is on him, if he doesn't make significant changes for the weekend then I want him gone.

[Noahfence]

Has anyone actually seen anything to suggest we’ll get any better? I can’t think of a single positive about him 

[LiliansLeftPeg]

7 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Naaah bollocks, that doesn't wash with me. Luke Thomas is an FA Cup winner with about 100 PL appearances, don't mask young and academy players for the likes of him and Hamza, they're mid twenties. Like us signing Schlupp back and pointing to an academy graduate.

 

I'd argue since he's cast the likes of Page aside and reintergrated Faes and others that have continually failed here we have undone any zest and good work ethic he may have tried to build in the short pre-season he had on the back of what Kingy had done pretty well. Since then we've won 1 in 7 FYI.

I'm not trying to conflate Hamza and Luke with a commitment to youth and academy graduates but if they were consistently omitted, it could easily be used to undermine what Marti has said about homegrown players in general and it wouldn't give academy players any faith in him. I think it's important players like that are used as they are. 

 

Anyway, while results haven't been exceptional, our league position has been fine which has to count for something. If results and position continue to slide, Marti will have less of a reason to stick with players who will then have truly failed his 'fresh start' ethos and I expect we'll see more academy players then. If we hover around the playoffs, we likely won't. 

 

I can't fully get behind Marti's approach to the academy being odd, though. I see Page getting rotated out (cast aside) and Monga persists, Jakubs establishing himself as our #1 and Silko is being used as a sub. It's not as most of us would like but it's enough for me for now. 

[Donwebbio]

Marti Cifuentes is an experienced football coach and ex player who knows infinately more about the game than I ever will. He has also assembled a back room team of ex-players & coaches who also know more than I do. However, I fail to see how he thinks Luke Thomas is an adequate full back and that his selection would not result in regular errors leading to goals. I also fail to see how he feels that Daka & Carranza can provide goals and/or an ability to lead the line successfully. Same questions surround:

 

1) Skipp's place on the bench.

2) Soumare's involvement in any capacity.

3) Ayew Starting.

4) Faes starting considering toxicity he gives off.

 

All the above are fairly clear to mist on here and are problems where his idealogy would call for him to 'search for solutions within the club'.

 

 

[Noahfence]

1 minute ago, LiliansLeftPeg said:

I'm not trying to conflate Hamza and Luke with a commitment to youth and academy graduates but if they were consistently omitted, it could easily be used to undermine what Marti has said about homegrown players in general and it wouldn't give academy players any faith in him. I think it's important players like that are used as they are. 

 

Anyway, while results haven't been exceptional, our league position has been fine which has to count for something. If results and position continue to slide, Marti will have less of a reason to stick with players who will then have truly failed his 'fresh start' ethos and I expect we'll see more academy players then. If we hover around the playoffs, we likely won't. 

 

I can't fully get behind Marti's approach to the academy being odd, though. I see Page getting rotated out (cast aside) and Monga persists, Jakubs establishing himself as our #1 and Silko is being used as a sub. It's not as most of us would like but it's enough for me for now. 

I’m not even sure you can count Silko Thomas in this. He was signed from Chelsea and is probably only being picked because he’s one of the older “academy” players. 

[Raj]

I actually wouldn't give a teck of he was sacked.

But I have zero faith in the hierarchy to

a) Have the balls to sack him.

b) Get a suitable decent replacement.

 

Unfortunately this is where our club is.

 

Shambles from the top

[cityfanlee23]

12 hours ago, sm1 said:

I really liked the appointment but he's been a major disappointment. We rely almost exclusively on individual brilliance because we are so slow getting the ball forward, the opposition get 10-11 players behind the ball. Its the same tired, worn out tactics, even PL teams are moving away from, but we seem obsessed with. I felt envious watching Hull, with there directness, overloads, and manipulation of space. Whereas when Abdul or Monga got the ball, they had 2-3 players on them. It's only the brilliance of Abdul that he still made things happen. 

This is the part I just cannot grasp, how can people defend the manager and say it doesn’t matter who’s in charge whilst we have Top and Rudkin? 
 

We all know the rot starts in the board room, but for gods sake, how does that excuse having a single attacking plan the entire game. 
 

Even Enzo had multiple options, when Fatawu got the ball, either Ndidi overlapped the central channel, or Ricardo/Justin overlapped the wide channel. 

This created space for Vardy and Fatawu. 
 

Under Marti we do nothing, we pass it to Fatawu and his options become: 

 

A) Beat 3 players and rifle it top corner 

B) Cross it into nobody because our strikers seemingly have the explicit instruction to not run into to box for a cross

C) Pass it backwards and do the inevitable horse shoe from Fatawu to Mavididi. 
 

I’ve watched opponent central midfielders literally WALKING from left to right because of how slow we do our little horse shoe between the wings at times, at the most they have to do a little jog, I can’t remember the last time we pinged a pass from Fatawu into Vestergard or Winks who immediately pinged it into Mavididi. This manager is just as pedestrian as Enzo, without the over/underlaps. 

MC is by no means the core problem, but he is having no problems creating issues for himself on match day, and ultimately he is a problem that can be addressed at any moment, if he wants fans on board fully he needs to start playing to his own principles and stop picking favourites. 
 

 

 

[StanSP]

3 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

Cifuentes getting battered on here for not playing multiple 17 year olds in a Championship team all at the same time is very unfair. I can’t remember another team that would play the likes of Evans, Page, Aluko alongside Monga all at the same time. It’s unrealistic and unfair on him and the lads that would ultimately get hung out to dry as we drop down the table. He’s got a squad weakened from last season that was already weakened after Enzo left. He’s trying to juggle long term fitness issues with Ricardo and Ramsey and deal with an imbalanced squad lacking in vital areas. Hence why he selects Hamza, moves James and chooses Soumare and keeps juggling strikers who don’t score. 
 

It’s rare that as fans we will agree with a manager about everyone in the team. I personally don’t agree with continuing with Thomas but tbf to Cifuentes, VK is only a slight improvement at best. Nelson is more an alternative to Vestergaard than to Faes and Vesty has been good this season. As for Okoli, many on here were calling him out earlier in the season for his passing and even his heading. He’s improved his reputation by not playing. 
 

I still think Nelson will get his chance and one or two of the other youngsters will get rotation time this season. Page, Aluko, Evans and Silko will get bench time, occasional starts but realistically we are playoff level at best unless Cifuentes is helped during the January transfer window. 

Be nice if we saw just one or two of them getting more minutes alongside Monga. 

 

If Cifuentes is going to talk about it, he needs to put it into action..

 

If I remember correctly RVN did similar. 

 

Alongside this though some of the senior professionals need to pull their fingers out. I

[AjcW]

If you're going to give Monga the amount of minutes he's getting, then don't Man City all his natural ability out of him! He's clearly been told to check and pass back rather than taking on his man.

[Tielemans63]

He's got mostly the same sack of shit to work with as the last three managers, that's really difficult. However, he's getting more wrong than he is right - that's my concern.

 

If I can take one look at the starting 11 last night and KNOW (and I don't mean 'think', I mean actually know) that the team won't win or even perform effectively....why can't he see that?

 

That was guesswork last night, and when a manager starts throwing everything up in the air hoping something might stick, that's a bad sign.

[alanf0x]

Dyche would have us top of this poor league by now...

[Levi Port]

47 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I have seen enough. Our stats are way off on almost everything bar scoring world's and our keeper saving us from having considerable fewer points than we do.

 

Our chance creation is poor, which is quite clear with only 1 goal from our strikers in 11 games. Whilst all 3 of them look way off it, they don't even miss chances to get annoyed about and a lot of that is from the players behind them and the pitiful patterns of play.

 

Despite our possession dominance we gift the opposition a lot of chances and the quality of the chance is scarily high too. This is with a system that has two quote defense minded full backs that don't go forward in Thomas and Hamza. It is a little more adventurous with Ricardo plays but he inverts more often than not and isn't joining the attacks like you might think he would. Zero goals or assists in 11 games from Thomas is poor, but what's even worse is the defensive mistakes that cost us. Out of position, even though never in attack, it's beyond unacceptable and a lot of this is on the manager.

 

Fundamental flaws in the system, being asked of players who's attitude stinks, who've repeatedly failed and let the club down and yet Marti has opted to go with them over a nucleus of players who align with the idea he likes to waffle on about but then not carry out. This is on him, if he doesn't make significant changes for the weekend then I want him gone.

I agree, we saw a team we could get behind in those first few games. Not pretty or dominant, but kept it tight and fought hard, it was refreshing to see a Leicester side play like that. It echoed Marti’s messages of what he wanted from us. Page and Okoli and many others playing looked hungry and did well, especially Okoli. The conservative style, without our defence on the half way line and seeking total controll in possession help our defence tremendously. We looked hard to play against. Yes Page was never going to play every game, but last night when Marti pushed Soumare high, I am sure that Page would have been much more effective than Soumare in that position. 
 

As soon as the window closed and the regulars were confirmed to be staying, Marti undid it all. He’s dropped Okoli, move our line way too high, pushing a controlled possession style but with no movement or fluidity in the final third. We look ridged and flat going forward and defensively fragile on the counter. So much space in front of the back 4 in transition and hectares of space down the flanks. We don’t have the players to play through a low block either. 
 

He has to go back to the way we played earlier, we do not have the players to dominate games in their half for a full 90, nor the players with the recovery speed to stop counters when we lose the ball whilst we try to penetrate the deep block that we force the opposition into with our style. 

Wether or not Marti recognises this and reverts back to a more compact system will determine his and our success. We’ve seen these players before, we know they can’t do this, Marti better see it before it’s too late. He deserves more time as he’s not had it easy here, but he better wake up to the reality quickly. 

Edited 22 October 2025 by Levi Port

[JonnyBoy]

the problem is we aren't even creating chances for the strikers, i would be a lot more content if we were creating and strikers weren't putting the ball into the back of the net. it is partly because our striker options are shite and partly because marti can't create chances. That's on Marti 

[Samilktray]

1 minute ago, alanf0x said:

Dyche would have us top of this poor league by now...

He didnt want the job, and he probably wouldnt have this team top so quite a pointless comment i would say

[daddylonglegs]

People are right to point to the shortcomings at board level but that doesn't excuse his selection criteria. 

The most offended I've been as a Leicester fan is Ruud picking Ward against Wolves, but for us as a fanbase to have to continue to watch Faes, Soumare, Vestegaard, Daka, etc stink the place out week in week out is getting to that level. It's completely unacceptable. 

 

As someone rightfully pointed out on Twitter, ultimately if the bloke was willing to pay £400k to come to this shower of shit of a football club, he was hardly ever going to be the man to go toe-to-toe with the board & the toxic players. 

Another completely avoidable mess. 

[Muzzy_no7]

Gary O’Neil, Tim Jenkins and Shaun Derry all available