We Need To Do More, Says Cifuentes

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We Need To Do More, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes felt we did not create enough to take anything from Saturday’s clash with Millwall, which ended in a 1-0 defeat at The Den.

2025-10-26T09:00+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

26 Oct, 2025

We Need To Do More, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes felt we did not create enough to take anything from Saturday’s clash with Millwall, which ended in a 1-0 defeat at The Den.

Sam Jones

2025-10-26T09:00+01:00

We Need To Do More, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes felt we did not create enough to take anything from Saturday’s clash with Millwall, which ended in a 1-0 defeat at The Den.

Sam Jones

2025-10-26T09:00+01:00

We Need To Do More, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes felt we did not create enough to take anything from Saturday’s clash with Millwall, which ended in a 1-0 defeat at The Den.

Sam Jones

2025-10-26T09:00+01:00

We Need To Do More, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes felt we did not create enough to take anything from Saturday’s clash with Millwall, which ended in a 1-0 defeat at The Den.

Sam Jones

2025-10-26T09:00+01:00

City beaten 1-0 by Millwall at The Den on Saturday
Femi Azeez’s first half goal proved to be decisive
Martí Cifuentes reflected on a frustrating afternoon
The Foxes lost for the second successive away fixture

The Foxes went behind to a Femi Azeez goal just before half-time in south London and were unable to conjure up a response in the second period, leaving us 10th in the Sky Bet Championship following back-to-back away defeats.

Disappointed to concede right at the end of the first 45 minutes, Cifuentes believes the overall performance, barring a promising opening to the game, was not what we needed.

“[It’s] not the result that we wanted,” City’s Manager commented after full-time. “All of us are sad because it was not the kind of reaction we wanted after Tuesday. [It’s been] a tough week and not a good performance.

“The start of the game, the first 15 minutes, was decent. But again, it was not enough to take the lead and then slowly Millwall were starting to push through set-plays and long throws.

“Perhaps we gave them a couple of unnecessary free-kicks which allowed them to kill the momentum and that was a bit frustrating, especially because in the first half a lot of things didn’t happen and we conceded a late goal. Then we had to start from scratch at half-time.

“It’s never good to concede in any moment but definitely in that situation in the 44th minute we knew they were looking - it was a pattern they had to try and go in behind with the opposite winger. Unfortunately, we did not defend this one well.”

Searching for an equaliser, the injury which forced Aaron Ramsey off the pitch in the 49th minute was a big blow for Leicester and, despite several attacking changes designed to provide extra impetus in the final third, we could not find a way through a stubborn Lions backline.

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The Spaniard continued: “It was actually at half-time that we spoke about the importance of JJ (Jordan James) and Aaron and how we felt they could attack certain areas. To lose him with a muscular injury is very frustrating.

“We have been trying to balance his minutes because he’s such a good player but he’s coming from a very long injury. We are trying our best but hopefully it is not a big injury.

“When you come to this place, it’s always going to be tough to come back. They were good and we couldn’t break them down.

"We had the second half to change things but we did not create enough. We had no accuracy and then the game became more emotional because you are chasing, you see the minutes are going and the game becomes more up and down. You have to risk more and it’s very frustrating.

“We tried to change a couple of things in the development of the second half and we played some moments with just three at the back. We switched Silko [Thomas] and Abdul [Fatawu] instead of playing wingers on opposite sides, trying to use some spaces that we knew they could concede, but it was not enough to score and create more chances.”

Keeping the belief is the message from Cifuentes as we head into a double-header on Filbert Way next week, facing Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough in the space of 72 hours, after picking up one point from the last three.

“It’s been a very difficult week, emotionally,” the 43-year-old admitted. “Starting with a game that I think we played a very good 45 minutes against Portsmouth and then the second half was not as good. Against Hull, it was the opposite; the first half was disappointing, the second a bit better.

“Today [was] not a good performance. There’s no doubt that we need to regroup now, analyse the things that we need to improve and make sure we stick together because it’s very easy to just point at the negatives.

“I’m a big believer in keeping working, accepting the critics and that things are not going our way and just try to improve things in the training ground in a week which will be very important.

“We need to look at ourselves and other things that I can do better and things that as a team we need to do better and try to get a positive result next week.”

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