Cifuentes joined Leicester City during a critical season. With several players having already left, and the possibility of more to satisfy the Spaniard's demand for a healthier squad size, a new crop of talent is coming through the academy and the head coach needs to navigate the troubled waters. A frustrated supporter base, lacklustre or ill-suited players, and a board moving lethargic in the market: these will need tackling for Cifuentes to succeed.
Unfortunately thus far, we have not seen a stellar commencement to the season. For now, the only real reason we can rightly point out without just being negative is that the head coach has not had a full pre-season, nor has he been backed in the market, and nor can the club do too much. They released Ruud van Nistelrooy too late, and sold players too late. Cifuentes has to work with the same team minus several brilliant players.
David Nugent criticises Leicester display
Against Charlton Athletic, the King Power side emerged narrow victors in a 0-1 win after a stunning goal-of-the-season contender from starlet Abdul Fatawu. However, the litany of failings which led to our failure in the EFL Cup against Huddersfield was not rectified for the Championship.
"It’s mistake after mistake for Leicester... Every set-piece is exactly the same for Charlton, every single time they’ve managed to make contact"David Nugent
Myriad issues arose all over the pitch. The main issue the former Leicester player noted was set-pieces. We are meant to have a set-piece coach, we are meant to have multiple rather tall players: we should not be getting hurt so badly every single corner. We are lucky Charlton are Charlton and not a Southampton or Ipswich Town. Were they able to read the post code for the net, the hosts would have scored multiple times.
"Their approach was very aggressive, very physical. They threw a lot of bodies in the box. It is not a performance I am extremely pleased or happy with. The identity of what we want to see is still not there"Marti Cifuentes
It is not just that poor defensive resolve and resilience on corners which is farcical. It is also the lack of structure and specifically system which is most concerning. As Marti Cifuentes stated, there must be an identity to how you retain, progress, and create both with and without a ball, and that must be imposed on a game. Nathan Jones' team did have an identity and imposed that on us.
Leicester City did not retain the ball well, wasting possession with wasteful passing or mistimed runs, whereas Charlton pushed hard, took the ball on mistakes and then got their team forward to pounce. Theirs was a counterattacking game. Maybe part of the failure to win for Jones was that they needed a more dominating game plan against a frail East Midlands outfit.
Of course, after the transfer window finally shuts and the Foxes know who their teammates are, Cifuentes can work much more on integrating his starting XI into the system they need to follow. It seems our priority is on the right flank, but we do need to see significant work in our midfield. Boubakary Soumare, Harry Winks, Bilal El Khannouss or Will Alves should be a very strong midfield for progression and creativity. The Spaniard needs to get that midfield firing.
David Nugent is right to point out mistakes and defensive resolve are our primary weaknesses. Cifuentes is right to put these weakenesses down to identity. That being said, if the King Power team know what the problem is, and if our head coach already knows who he wants to start, then we should quickly start to see fixes.
To an extent, the omission of the Moroccan midfielder for either a real or percieved 'head drop' due to transfer rumours shows Cifuentes is in the right direction. The team needs a fighting mentality, they need to show energy as well as genuinely having the quality demanded by the supporters: with that, an identity of resolve is formed around a quality squad. If the head coach can do this, Leicester City will be on the winning run again.