Cifuentes OUT

[filthyfox]

31 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

Rudkin and Top would have advised to keep them involved surely you know this by now ?

 

Marti flipped the switch like Ruud 

Ruud NEVER had a 50% win rate over 6 weeks.

[filthyfox]

26 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

Squad is paper thin my son

Its like loo roll.

 

Either thin or full of crap.

 

We are REALLY missing Daka's goals!

[1972 Fox]

Just now, filthyfox said:

Its like loo roll.

 

Either thin or full of crap.

 

We are REALLY missing Daka's goals!

Don't worry, he'll be back soon as Zambia are already out of AFCON. 

[BrilliantFox]

This thread and the Luke Thomas thread are the only two threads that get serious traction nowadays 

 

Shows the state we're in.

[Pliskin]

35 minutes ago, MGLCFC said:

Whether they have played in the Premier League is irrelevant if they are only putting in half hearted performances. This makes them poor team players who impact on the squad morale, confidence and consistency. Whilst I agree that there has been little improvement this season, I'm not sure any realistic managerial appointment could get a tune out of this squad as it stands at the moment. Marti talks about a high press and attacking options but the players who should be able to adopt this style don't seem to put the effort of application in.

I do disagree to some extent. 
 

Now the likes of Winks and Faes have been removed, the effort levels and commitment within the side has improved, somewhat.

 

What Marti is getting wrong, is the deployment of his tactics. It’s clear his desire is to play a possession based brand of football. But, he doesn’t have the personnel to do that. We see this especially in the goal kicks and when we have possession with the defence. We don’t have a player or at least don’t use a player to dropping the DM pocket and recycle the ball, well we do, it’s Winks but he’s a tosser, but that’s what he did perfectly, drop into the hole, collect the ball move it on quickly, get out of the hole and open up the pitch for an attack….. however, the rest of the team don’t support this, when Winks first came back in after his first hissy fit, he looked good for the first few games, however, we saw how the rest of the team don’t support this style…..  he was often receiving the ball in these deep pockets and fighting to retain possession because the movement around him wasn’t there. 
 

So, it was evident that this particular style wasn’t working…… and you can’t play possession based football without that player, otherwise it becomes walking football, and you’ll either have to focus of defending, or attacking, rarely both. 
 

You can see we lose control of games in the last half an hour, yesterday Derby saw pretty much the entire football in the last half an hour, we were struggling to even slow the pace of the game down, and if it wasn’t for Derby being shite they could have got an equaliser. 
 

You don’t need the best players to do well at this level, naturally it helps, but you can achieve with average players. What you need is a clear structured plan, be solid and play to your strengths…. I’d argue we do none of those things….. we’ve got plenty of pace with James, Mavididi and Fatawu, yet when do we see it? Other than when James decides to break the press with a run. 
 

Instead Marti tries to play on his way, which is garbage, and it’s strangling us…. How many times have we seen Mavididi and Fatawu receive the ball at walking pace? If we because more of a transitional team, is argue we would see some better results and better performances. 
 

Yes I agree there are lots of variables that make a successful team, and we’re definitely lacking some of those variables, but, there’s enough ability in this team to play in a more direct attacking way, not fixing about with goal kicks and inevitably giving the ball away heaping pressure on ourselves. And this is where I believe Marti falls down, he’s relentlessly focused on his ideology, even if it doesn’t suit the team. 

Edited 30 December 2025 by Pliskin

[whoareyaaa]

4 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

I do disagree to some extent. 
 

Now the likes of Winks and Faes have been removed, the effort levels and commitment within the swing has improved, somewhat.

 

What Marti is getting wrong, is the deployment of his tactics. It’s clear his desire is to play a possession based brand of football. But, he doesn’t have the personnel to do that. We see this especially in the goal kicks and when we have possession with the defence. We don’t have a player or at least don’t use a player to dropping the DM pocket and recycle the ball, well we do, it’s Winks but he’s a tosser, but that’s what he did perfectly, drop into the hole, collect the ball move it on quickly, get out of the hole and open up the pitch for an attack….. however, the rest of the team don’t support this, when Winks first came back in after his first hissy fit, he looked good for the first few games, however, we saw how the rest of the team don’t support this style…..  he was often receiving the ball in these deep pockets and fighting to retain possession because the movement around him wasn’t there. 
 

So, it was evident that this particular style wasn’t working…… and you can’t play possession based football without that player, otherwise it becomes walking football, and you’ll either have to focus of defending, or attacking, rarely both. 
 

You can see we lose control of games in the last half an hour, yesterday Derby saw pretty much the entire football in the last half an hour, we were struggling to even slow the pace of the game down, and if it wasn’t for Derby being shite they could have got an equaliser. 
 

You don’t need the best players to do well at this level, naturally it helps, but you can achieve with average players. What you need is a clear structured plan, be solid and play to your strengths…. I’d argue we do none of those things….. we’ve got plenty of pace with James, Mavididi and Fatawu, yet when do we see it? Other than when James decides to break the press with a run. 
 

Instead Marti tries to play on his way, which is garbage, and it’s strangling us…. How many times have we seen Mavididi and Fatawu receive the ball at walking pace? If we because more of a transitional team, is argue we would see some better results and better performances. 
 

Yes I agree there are lots of variables that make a successful team, and we’re definitely lacking some of those variables, but, there’s enough ability in this team to play in a more direct attacking way, not fixing about with goal kicks and inevitably giving the ball away heaping pressure on ourselves. And this is where I believe Marti falls down, he’s relentlessly focused on his ideology, even if it doesn’t suit the team. 

I don't think he wants to play possession based football more get it to the wingers get men in the box and try and score,

 

King is a bit of a saving grace really giving he worked under the Pearson era, pretty sure he is feeding that into the ear of Marti and its rubbing off

[Pliskin]

29 minutes ago, kingfox said:

Don’t know how anyone can blame our issues on one particular thing, our problems on the pitch come down to a bit of both imo.
 

There’s been plenty of issues with Marti’s coaching and tactics, and it shows up in our statistics. Average attack, shit defence. 
 

But I think you also have to blame personnel issues too. We don’t have a regular goalscorer, our depth at central midfield is crap, both full-back positions have been questioned this season, while we also lack physicality and leadership. 
 

There’s been major red flags with Cifuentes, but he has also been dealt a bad hand. 

I don’t disagree with you, and I do think you sum it up well. I’d just caveat this by saying I do think he ignores the limited strengths we do have in the team. It would take a very minor adjustment to the tactics, you’re still going to rely on James to do what he is doing, and you’re going to look to lean on breaking in the transition with Mavididi and Abdul, and potentially Page or whomever takes up that ten role. It’s this particular tactic that I personally believe Marti is choosing not to deploy 

[whoareyaaa]

3 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

I don’t disagree with you, and I do think you sum it up well. I’d just caveat this by saying I do think he ignores the limited strengths we do have in the team. It would take a very minor adjustment to the tactics, you’re still going to rely on James to do what he is doing, and you’re going to look to lean on breaking in the transition with Mavididi and Abdul, and potentially Page or whomever takes up that ten role. It’s this particular tactic that I personally believe Marti is choosing not to deploy 

BDCR has took up the 10 role and delivered not sure what else he can do really ?

 

Fatawu delivered the cross for BDCR and that's the tactics we are employing.

 

It's not his fault Mav and Fatawu are blowing hot and cold and we don't have a recognized striker apart from Ayew who is to slow.

 

He tried to add fresh legs in Ramsey and he got injured because he has a bad record of injuryss.

 

Page comes in and does at a job.

 

It's all a learning curve we are in a rebuild.

Edited 30 December 2025 by whoareyaaa

[whoareyaaa]

40 minutes ago, winteriscoming said:

Disagree. 
We have a below average championship manager in charge who we wouldn’t even have considered if he was British. 
But because he’s Spanish and gives the impression he’s inspired by Barcelona Top and Rudkin fall for him. 
I can’t accept this mediocrity. 
Millwall, Preston, Hull and Watford all above us. 
With what we’ve got at our disposal even how shit we have been we should be above those sides. 
Someone like Mowbray would have us higher in the league. 

So you think the derby manager would do a better job ?

 

Mowbray would face the same issues the squad is thin bare and we are blooding in youth with no recognized striker 

 

Nelson and  Okoli are the only improvements in defence for years.

Edited 30 December 2025 by whoareyaaa

[winteriscoming]

35 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Have we ever appointed such a short term (I assume) manager?

Not one I can think of. 
This league is so shit that imo it really shouldn’t take much to go on a decent run. 
 

[whoareyaaa]

Just now, winteriscoming said:

Not one I can think of. 
This league is so shit that imo it really shouldn’t take much to go on a decent run. 
 

you need a team to do that we are only just starting to get a team willing to fight for each other.

[SafewayFox]

11 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

BDCR has took up the 10 role and delivered not sure what else he can do really ?

 

Fatawu delivered the cross for BDCR and that's the tactics we are employing.

 

It's not his fault Mav and Fatawu are blowing hot and cold and we don't have a recognized striker apart from Ayew who is to slow.

 

He tried to add fresh legs in Ramsey and he got injured because he has a bad record of injuryss.

 

Page comes in and does at a job.

 

It's all a learning curve we are in a rebuild.

That’s ignoring Marti’s tactics are pretty much nullifying our wingers.

 

I’ve been frustrated with Stephy and Abdul about some of their decision making but our lack of attacking intent under Marti needs calling out.

[whoareyaaa]

4 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

That’s ignoring Marti’s tactics are pretty much nullifying our wingers.

 

I’ve been frustrated with Stephy and Abdul about some of their decision making but our lack of attacking intent under Marti needs calling out.

I don't know how we can keep bashing Marti with this.. we all wanted away from possession football and now we are trying to be a bit more direct it's considered as us having no tactics  

 

Rare wingers are consistently beating opponents and delivering, that's the push that comes with the shove.

 

We scored from this tactic yesterday if you didn't see it ?

Edited 30 December 2025 by whoareyaaa

[kingfox]

16 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

I don’t disagree with you, and I do think you sum it up well. I’d just caveat this by saying I do think he ignores the limited strengths we do have in the team. It would take a very minor adjustment to the tactics, you’re still going to rely on James to do what he is doing, and you’re going to look to lean on breaking in the transition with Mavididi and Abdul, and potentially Page or whomever takes up that ten role. It’s this particular tactic that I personally believe Marti is choosing not to deploy 

I think his tactics have been very over reliant on our wingers, so many times this season it’s felt like, get the ball to our wingers and hope for the best, it’s all become very predictable. But our attacking problems also weigh heavily on the lack of a goalscoring striker, take Hull City for example, like us, their defensive statistics have been diabolical, but they are the second top scorers in the Championship, while Gelhardt and McBurnie have scored 19 between them. 
 

What is most worrying is our defensive statistics and the way Marti sets us up, we are far too vulnerable on transition. So many occasions last night where Jordan James was caught out too far forward, which then vacates a massive space that Oli Skipp has to defend on his own. He needs to tweak our system to make us more defensively secure, or maybe 1-2 signings in January can help us out on that front. 
 

It’s why our personnel deserves to be criticised. We lack leadership, we lack physicality. Where’s our Wes Morgan? Where’s our no nonsense Robert Huth? Where’s our Wilfred Ndidi? 
 

At QPR, Cifuentes had the luxury of two 6ft3 imposing central midfielders in Jonathan Varane and Sam Field, we have no player of that ilk, that along with no real leader in defence and no regular goalscoring striker, it’s evidently hurting us. 

[whoareyaaa]

9 minutes ago, kingfox said:

I think his tactics have been very over reliant on our wingers, so many times this season it’s felt like, get the ball to our wingers and hope for the best, it’s all become very predictable. But our attacking problems also weigh heavily on the lack of a goalscoring striker, take Hull City for example, like us, their defensive statistics have been diabolical, but they are the second top scorers in the Championship, while Gelhardt and McBurnie have scored 19 between them. 
 

What is most worrying is our defensive statistics and the way Marti sets us up, we are far too vulnerable on transition. So many occasions last night where Jordan James was caught out too far forward, which then vacates a massive space that Oli Skipp has to defend on his own. He needs to tweak our system to make us more defensively secure, or maybe 1-2 signings in January can help us out on that front. 
 

It’s why our personnel deserves to be criticised. We lack leadership, we lack physicality. Where’s our Wes Morgan? Where’s our no nonsense Robert Huth? Where’s our Wilfred Ndidi? 
 

At QPR, Cifuentes had the luxury of two 6ft3 imposing central midfielders in Jonathan Varane and Sam Field, we have no player of that ilk, that along with no real leader in defence and no regular goalscoring striker, it’s evidently hurting us. 

Stop speaking sense

[SafewayFox]

14 minutes ago, kingfox said:

I think his tactics have been very over reliant on our wingers, so many times this season it’s felt like, get the ball to our wingers and hope for the best, it’s all become very predictable. But our attacking problems also weigh heavily on the lack of a goalscoring striker, take Hull City for example, like us, their defensive statistics have been diabolical, but they are the second top scorers in the Championship, while Gelhardt and McBurnie have scored 19 between them. 
 

What is most worrying is our defensive statistics and the way Marti sets us up, we are far too vulnerable on transition. So many occasions last night where Jordan James was caught out too far forward, which then vacates a massive space that Oli Skipp has to defend on his own. He needs to tweak our system to make us more defensively secure, or maybe 1-2 signings in January can help us out on that front. 
 

It’s why our personnel deserves to be criticised. We lack leadership, we lack physicality. Where’s our Wes Morgan? Where’s our no nonsense Robert Huth? Where’s our Wilfred Ndidi? 
 

At QPR, Cifuentes had the luxury of two 6ft3 imposing central midfielders in Jonathan Varane and Sam Field, we have no player of that ilk, that along with no real leader in defence and no regular goalscoring striker, it’s evidently hurting us. 

Is that not symptomatic of Marti’s lack of identity?

 

He is a moments manager, Cooper was the same and just hoped that individual quality would make the difference.

 

Look at how Enzo had them all walking up and down the pitch during pre-season, whilst some may say it was overly rigid, but he at least had clear patterns of play.

 

 

[The Doctor]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

At full mental capacity sure, but this team is both stale and mentally weakened.

and many would argue that motivating the team and fixing those mental fragilities is part of the managers job 

[BrilliantFox]

9 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

He is a moments manager, Cooper was the same and just hoped that individual quality would make the difference.

 

These guys that defend Cifuentes just don't understand the basics of how a structured team should look like.

 

Its almost 2026, the most important aspect of football teams in the modern era is the system.

Edited 30 December 2025 by BrilliantFox

[Dahnsouff]

5 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

and many would argue that motivating the team and fixing those mental fragilities is part of the managers job 

For sure, but it took mentality monster Pearson a good while to rebuild the required mentality, so perhaps we may need to relax expectations a little,

[whoareyaaa]

20 minutes ago, BrilliantFox said:

These guys that defend Cifuentes just don't understand the basics of how a structured team should look like.

 

Its almost 2026, the most important aspect of football teams in the modern era is the system.

You sound like Harry Winks

[whoareyaaa]

30 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

Is that not symptomatic of Marti’s lack of identity?

 

He is a moments manager, Cooper was the same and just hoped that individual quality would make the difference.

 

Look at how Enzo had them all walking up and down the pitch during pre-season, whilst some may say it was overly rigid, but he at least had clear patterns of play.

 

 

Enzo is at Chelsea we can't afford to get a manager like him now or gamble on it.

[kingfox]

26 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

Is that not symptomatic of Marti’s lack of identity?

 

He is a moments manager, Cooper was the same and just hoped that individual quality would make the difference.

 

Look at how Enzo had them all walking up and down the pitch during pre-season, whilst some may say it was overly rigid, but he at least had clear patterns of play.

 

 

Tbh, very much like Enzo, Marti likes his wingers to be effective in 1 vs 1 situations, it’s a clear tactic that he possesses as he indicated in that coaches voice video he did while at QPR. 

 

The problem I find is our build up play is too slow, in a league where the pace of play has statistically sped up since the last time we were in it. We are the fifth slowest team in the Championship in terms of direct speed. So many times, once the ball gets out to our wingers, the opposition have their defence shape, our wingers might get doubled up on, to the point where you’re expecting them to create a moment of magic. Which as we’ve seen numerous times this season, you’re over relying on Fatawu to score a worldie which of course isn’t going to happen every week. 

[whoareyaaa]

1 minute ago, kingfox said:

Tbh, very much like Enzo, Marti likes his wingers to be effective in 1 vs 1 situations, it’s a clear tactic that he possesses as he indicated in that coaches voice video he did while at QPR. 

 

The problem I find is our build up play is too slow, in a league where the pace of play has statistically sped up since the last time we were in it. We are the fifth slowest team in the Championship in terms of direct speed. So many times, once the ball gets out to our wingers, the opposition have their defence shape, our wingers might get doubled up on, to the point where you’re expecting them to create a moment of magic. Which as we’ve seen numerous times this season, you’re over relying on Fatawu to score a worldie which of course isn’t going to happen every week. 

We have lost Vardy last time we was here Vardy would cause the defenders to push back and allow the wingers more space.. not hard to work out.

 

Now we have Ayew/

[trooky]

2 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

Enzo is at Chelsea we can't afford to get a manager like him now or gamble on it.

We had a similar manager to Enzo, under our noses, and Rudkin let him go to Cardiff. 

 

Also we gambled on Marti, his previous track record didn't warrant the Leicester job. 

 

The club are clueless and run by morons. 

[whoareyaaa]

1 minute ago, trooky said:

We had a similar manager to Enzo, under our noses, and Rudkin let him go to Cardiff. 

 

Also we gambled on Marti, his previous track record didn't warrant the Leicester job. 

 

The club are clueless and run by morons. 

agreed