Cifuentes OUT

[Ian Nacho]

4 hours ago, Pliskin said:

  

I think it’s important to start with some context and fairness. Marti Cifuentes undoubtedly walked into a difficult situation. His late arrival, combined with a lack of real productivity in the transfer market, meant he inherited a squad that wasn’t shaped for his ideas and had little time to adjust. That absolutely matters, and it should be acknowledged.

 

However, that context can only carry so much weight after a sustained period in charge. The core issue for me is that, despite working with players who have succeeded at higher levels and, in many cases, have previously excelled in this division, there has been no meaningful improvement—either individually or collectively. If anything, several players look worse. There’s no clear development of patterns, confidence, or cohesion, and that is ultimately the responsibility of the manager and his coaching staff.

 

Tactically, the shortcomings are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Cifuentes appears wedded to the same basic approach week after week, with changes largely limited to personnel rather than structure or philosophy. Opposition teams seem to know exactly what they’re going to face. Our wingers are routinely isolated, expected to beat multiple players without adequate support, while large gaps appear in midfield due to the continued use of a double pivot that doesn’t suit the profiles available.

 

Jordan James is a prime example. He is far more effective as a high 8, pressing and linking play in advanced areas, yet this means Skipp is often constrained by a system that limits his strengths rather than maximising them, and leaves him exposed in the midfield all by himself… Similarly, persisting with Jordan Ayew as a central striker exposes another structural flaw. He simply doesn’t function as a true number 9. The lack of presence, movement, and tempo through the middle slows our entire attack and makes us predictable and easy to defend against.

 

Fitness is another major concern. Time and again, Leicester look capable of sustaining intensity for 45 minutes, but not much more. Second halves have become a recurring problem, with energy levels dropping, distances between units growing, and control of games slipping away far too easily. That points not just to squad issues, but to preparation and conditioning.

 

Perhaps most frustrating of all is the in-game management. When momentum turns against us, Cifuentes consistently fails to read the game early enough. Changes are either the wrong ones, or they come too late, and tactical adjustments often only arrive once the match is already lost. Altering the shape after the damage has been done is not proactive management—it’s reactive, and ineffective.

 

Taking all of this together, I struggle to see how Leicester, as things stand, are capable of achieving promotion. We all know that the problems are too deep-rooted, both on and off the pitch, and the damage has largely already been done this season. That doesn’t mean sacking a manager recklessly—but if the right candidate is available, I believe Cifuentes should be moved on sooner rather than later. Doing so would at least give a new manager time to assess the squad, implement a clear plan, and begin rebuilding properly for the future, rather than allowing stagnation to continue.

Couldn't of said it better myself. 

[GrobyLCFC31]

Marti the man seems a good bloke! 
Cifuentes the manager is out his depth. 

[Chown]

The fans who want Cifientes out will be the same people that insisted Van Nistelrooy was an upgrade on Cooper. Cifientes isn’t perfect but changing the manager yet again is ridiculous and there’s no-one better out there who would join us anyway.

[HankMarvin]

15 minutes ago, GrobyLCFC31 said:

Marti the man seems a good bloke! 
Cifuentes the manager is out his depth. 

Too much of this old shit, how often do we hear Daka seems a nice bloke. Maybe it’s because is is such a wet wipe that the players don’t bother running for him, as much as say the other 23 odd teams in the league 

[gurru991]

1 hour ago, ThurmastonFox said:

But you think he’s got the goalie and subs sorted?

I didn't want to be overly critical !!!

[Dan]

Absolutely hopelessly out of his depth but I don't think the thought of sacking him would've even crossed their minds at this point. They probably genuinely think we'll still go up this season as well.

 

Will lose at Wrexham. Will probably take 4 points from Oxford and Charlton, two nothingy, forgettable performances where James or Fatawu bailed us out of the latest rabble.

 

In 5 years if there was a tenable on the last 10 Leicester managers I think he'd be quite likely be the one forgotten. Absolutely nothing about him whatsoever.

[Dan]

15 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Writing was on the wall after 4 or 5 games.

Even earlier for me. Thought the opening game was a massive red flag and as expected, plenty of teams in this league have hammered them without having the advantage of playing them off the back of no pre-season friendlies. Preston was an absolute shambles. Charlton was the same but bailed out by quality.

 

He's served up complete dog shit from day one and always seems to get a result when he needs it to survive.

 

It's a hard job. It's a rank set of circumstances. But he's absolutely rubbish. Totally out of his depth and if he manages a bigger club than us in his career I'll piss myself.

[Joe90]

6 hours ago, Chown said:

The fans who want Cifientes out will be the same people that insisted Van Nistelrooy was an upgrade on Cooper. Cifientes isn’t perfect but changing the manager yet again is ridiculous and there’s no-one better out there who would join us anyway.

Change your “H” to a “L” and we are about there 

[BeaumontFox]

17 hours ago, Pliskin said:

Because the league is ****ing shit. Were they even good today? No they weren’t, we lost the game because we’re an absolute mess. 

EXACTLY!!! The league is shit and we’re in the second half of it because we’re even shitter than Cov!! 

[BeaumontFox]

13 hours ago, Wink84 said:

So are we, in terms of players wages, what's your point?

My point is, they’re winning the league and we’re dogshit. Did you actually expect a result?? JJ bags us a goal again and suddenly we’re going to smash them? Mate - without JJ, we’d be fighting to stay up. Do you even watch this team? Not played a single good game all season.

 

 

[MC Prussian]

9 hours ago, Chown said:

The fans who want Cifientes out will be the same people that insisted Van Nistelrooy was an upgrade on Cooper. Cifientes isn’t perfect but changing the manager yet again is ridiculous and there’s no-one better out there who would join us anyway.

So we and the club should just give up/give in and accept our mediocrity and demise?

We've had the opportunity to establish ourselves in the top flight, and we blew it spectacularly.

 

Cifuentes is a mid-table manager leading a mediocre, partly rather inexperienced, rather leaderless squad, hired by an incompetent club management.

The fact that the people in charge accept mediocrity says it all.

 

All the aspiration and ambition is gone. I mean, what are our goals this season?

Has the club ever publicly come out and stated the management and/or the manager wanted to reach the playoffs or an immediate return to the Premier League?

In their eyes – are we under- or overperforming? Do we have a three-year, five-year plan? Do we have a plan at all?

Has Top appeared in public lately (after that shit show of a club interview) and scolded the manager or the team?

Apart from shallow statements and hollow phrases, where are the genuine interactions with the fans, where's the genuine interest in interactions with the fanbase?

Nothing.

 

They don't care. And that's the frustrating part.

Edited 18 January by MC Prussian

[Claudio Fannieri]

The more I think about it, the drop off in the 2nd half of games in which we are leading is very much a tactical decision, get ahead and then 2nd half look to sit back and close the game out, it’s very much out the Puel and Rodgers text book. 
 

It clearly isn’t working and by my reckoning that is 11 points we have dropped from winning positions at half time. That is down to the manager being too cautious and not trying to kill the game off. For me he has to go, this is not going to change. 
 

Those 11 points which were all avoidable would have us on 48 points and nicely nestled between Boro and Ipswich in 3rd. 

[Spanner73]

9 hours ago, Chown said:

The fans who want Cifientes out will be the same people that insisted Van Nistelrooy was an upgrade on Cooper. Cifientes isn’t perfect but changing the manager yet again is ridiculous and there’s no-one better out there who would join us anyway.

It’s always the Manager’s fault didn’t you know that. 
 

Anyway, it’s about time we all praised Khun Top on the brilliant job he’s doing 

[GrobyLCFC31]

9 hours ago, HankMarvin said:

Too much of this old shit, how often do we hear Daka seems a nice bloke. Maybe it’s because is is such a wet wipe that the players don’t bother running for him, as much as say the other 23 odd teams in the league 

Completely agree, that’s my point.
 

A nice bloke that immersed himself in the club and we all wanted to do well, but he’s out of his depth 

[Corky]

9 hours ago, Chown said:

The fans who want Cifientes out will be the same people that insisted Van Nistelrooy was an upgrade on Cooper. Cifientes isn’t perfect but changing the manager yet again is ridiculous and there’s no-one better out there who would join us anyway.

Cooper and Cifuentes are similar in that their points tallies are remarkable given the performances.

[Rubbersoul]

3 hours ago, Dan said:

Even earlier for me. Thought the opening game was a massive red flag and as expected, plenty of teams in this league have hammered them without having the advantage of playing them off the back of no pre-season friendlies. Preston was an absolute shambles. Charlton was the same but bailed out by quality.

 

He's served up complete dog shit from day one and always seems to get a result when he needs it to survive.

 

It's a hard job. It's a rank set of circumstances. But he's absolutely rubbish. Totally out of his depth and if he manages a bigger club than us in his career I'll piss myself.

Half time against Sheffield Wednesday I was already having doubts. We genuinely looked horrendous. 

 

3 hours ago, Dan said:

Absolutely hopelessly out of his depth but I don't think the thought of sacking him would've even crossed their minds at this point. They probably genuinely think we'll still go up this season as well.

 

Will lose at Wrexham. Will probably take 4 points from Oxford and Charlton, two nothingy, forgettable performances where James or Fatawu bailed us out of the latest rabble.

 

In 5 years if there was a tenable on the last 10 Leicester managers I think he'd be quite likely be the one forgotten. Absolutely nothing about him whatsoever.

You’re 100% right with this. They’ll be thinking we’re still likely to go up. They’ll see yesterday as we just go unlucky away against top of the league. 
 

Said it so many times but we never go on a bad enough run for him to be under pressure. We’ll lose to Wrexham then win the next two. We have become his QPR side. 

[coolhandfox]

Does learn from his mistakes, play Faes when he didn’t want to be here, now he bringing on Soumare who hasn't want to be here for about 3 years.

 

Kept playing Ayew and BDCR together who have a combine age of what 75.

 

 

[Claridge]

56 minutes ago, Corky said:

Cooper and Cifuentes are similar in that their points tallies are remarkable given the performances.

We would be doing a lot better under Cooper in this league, shows how bad Marti is i suppose

[Sky Blues]

10 hours ago, Chown said:

The fans who want Cifientes out will be the same people that insisted Van Nistelrooy was an upgrade on Cooper. Cifientes isn’t perfect but changing the manager yet again is ridiculous and there’s no-one better out there who would join us anyway.

There's a fair few decent managers out there without a job....

[Big_Nige]

12 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

Incredible wishful thinking, if Franks sacked they should be on the phone offering him the keys to seagrave and a blank canvas to build the team on

He’s another manager, just like Potter did at Brighton, that benefits from a well run, structured, club that has a clear way of operating, and has joined up thinking all the way through from owner to DOF to manager. 
 

As soon as these types of managers move to basket case clubs a-la Chelsea and Spurs they fail. What would make either of them be a success here? 
 

As much as I as I admire Frank for what he did at Brentford, his failure at Spurs was so obvious. I’d be the same here. We’re a shambles of an operation

Edited 18 January by Big_Nige

[Big_Nige]

15 hours ago, Pliskin said:

  

I think it’s important to start with some context and fairness. Marti Cifuentes undoubtedly walked into a difficult situation. His late arrival, combined with a lack of real productivity in the transfer market, meant he inherited a squad that wasn’t shaped for his ideas and had little time to adjust. That absolutely matters, and it should be acknowledged.

 

However, that context can only carry so much weight after a sustained period in charge. The core issue for me is that, despite working with players who have succeeded at higher levels and, in many cases, have previously excelled in this division, there has been no meaningful improvement—either individually or collectively. If anything, several players look worse. There’s no clear development of patterns, confidence, or cohesion, and that is ultimately the responsibility of the manager and his coaching staff.

 

Tactically, the shortcomings are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Cifuentes appears wedded to the same basic approach week after week, with changes largely limited to personnel rather than structure or philosophy. Opposition teams seem to know exactly what they’re going to face. Our wingers are routinely isolated, expected to beat multiple players without adequate support, while large gaps appear in midfield due to the continued use of a double pivot that doesn’t suit the profiles available.

 

Jordan James is a prime example. He is far more effective as a high 8, pressing and linking play in advanced areas, yet this means Skipp is often constrained by a system that limits his strengths rather than maximising them, and leaves him exposed in the midfield all by himself… Similarly, persisting with Jordan Ayew as a central striker exposes another structural flaw. He simply doesn’t function as a true number 9. The lack of presence, movement, and tempo through the middle slows our entire attack and makes us predictable and easy to defend against.

 

Fitness is another major concern. Time and again, Leicester look capable of sustaining intensity for 45 minutes, but not much more. Second halves have become a recurring problem, with energy levels dropping, distances between units growing, and control of games slipping away far too easily. That points not just to squad issues, but to preparation and conditioning.

 

Perhaps most frustrating of all is the in-game management. When momentum turns against us, Cifuentes consistently fails to read the game early enough. Changes are either the wrong ones, or they come too late, and tactical adjustments often only arrive once the match is already lost. Altering the shape after the damage has been done is not proactive management—it’s reactive, and ineffective.

 

Taking all of this together, I struggle to see how Leicester, as things stand, are capable of achieving promotion. We all know that the problems are too deep-rooted, both on and off the pitch, and the damage has largely already been done this season. That doesn’t mean sacking a manager recklessly—but if the right candidate is available, I believe Cifuentes should be moved on sooner rather than later. Doing so would at least give a new manager time to assess the squad, implement a clear plan, and begin rebuilding properly for the future, rather than allowing stagnation to continue.

Absolutely spot on this, the last thing we need as a club is more manager upheaval, but it’s painfully obvious Marti isn’t the man to take us forward.
 

I suspect we’ll limp along to the end of the season win 2, lose 2, and finally keep a clean sheet some point in April. We’ll appoint a “new DOF” in the summer. Sack Marti in October after an indifferent start to the season, the new manager inherits a squad he doesn’t want and we will have wasted another 12 months while we turn into the next Stoke/WBA or Norwich and become marooned in this god awful league

[SafewayFox]

2 minutes ago, Big_Nige said:

Absolutely spot on this, the last thing we need as a club is more manager upheaval, but it’s painfully obvious Marti isn’t the man to take us forward.
 

I suspect we’ll limp along to the end of the season win 2, lose 2, and finally keep a clean sheet some point in April. We’ll appoint a “new DOF” in the summer. Sack Marti in October after an indifferent start to the season, the new manager inherits a squad he doesn’t want and we will have wasted another 12 months while we turn into the next Stoke/WBA or Norwich and become marooned in this god awful league

Exactly this.

 

Top and KPFC need to sell up.
 

They’re out of their depth and we’re only going to fall further behind other clubs, scarily ones that wouldn’t even have been on our radar just 3/4 years ago.

[ian__marshall]

I'm worried about the impact he's having on the players development particularly given we have some exceptional talent coming through. 

 

That break late in the game yesterday when Fatawu shot when there were several team mates in better positions reaffirmed my concerns. More worryingly was MCs reaction. Any decent manager subs him off straight away and explains why he has been pulled and reminds him it's a team game. He's an exceptional talent capable of the occasional moment of genius, but as a player he needs to understand he can't do it all alone. 

 

The drop in Mavididi's level is astonishing. Whilst I appreciate he's not a young lad he should easily be one of the best players in the league, yet looks like a pub player. 

 

Monga looks like a shadow of the player that burst onto the scene. Despite his age he should be excelling at this level if he is to go on to become the talent we all believe he can be. 

 

Nelson for me should be flying but whilst an improvement on others in the position he's been pretty average since coming in. Likewise Jakub. 

 

With all the other youngsters coming through I simply don't trust Marti to aid these players with their development. That's a real problem for us where we are as a club right now, because not only will that mean we're unlikely to make a quick return to the PL, but the full value potential of these players is unlikely to be fulfilled meaning we'll struggle to sell our way out the financial predicament we face. 

 

Sadly I'm afraid he's not what we need given the current circumstances and the club need to bite the bullet and move him on. 

 

Edited 18 January by ian__marshall

[Claridge]

21 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

Exactly this.

 

Top and KPFC need to sell up.
 

They’re out of their depth and we’re only going to fall further behind other clubs, scarily ones that wouldn’t even have been on our radar just 3/4 years ago.

Keep hearing this sell up, but who would buy us?

[SafewayFox]

3 minutes ago, Claridge said:

Keep hearing this sell up, but who would buy us?

Sorry but that type of response is similar to “replace Rodgers with who?”.

 

Birmingham were on their knees, yet they were an attractive prospect for Brady and co.

 

I appreciate that it’s obviously harder to sell when outside the PL but Top either learns how to run a football club or looks for potential buyers/investors.