‘Produce More Quality’ - Cifuentes Speaks Pre-Norwich

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‘Produce More Quality’ - Cifuentes Speaks Pre-Norwich

Martí Cifuentes has called on his Leicester City side to give everything in our pursuit of gaining a positive result at Norwich City on Saturday.

2025-11-08T09:00+00:00

by Sam Jones

Published

08 Nov, 2025

‘Produce More Quality’ - Cifuentes Speaks Pre-Norwich

Martí Cifuentes has called on his Leicester City side to give everything in our pursuit of gaining a positive result at Norwich City on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-11-08T09:00+00:00

‘Produce More Quality’ - Cifuentes Speaks Pre-Norwich

Martí Cifuentes has called on his Leicester City side to give everything in our pursuit of gaining a positive result at Norwich City on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-11-08T09:00+00:00

‘Produce More Quality’ - Cifuentes Speaks Pre-Norwich

Martí Cifuentes has called on his Leicester City side to give everything in our pursuit of gaining a positive result at Norwich City on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-11-08T09:00+00:00

‘Produce More Quality’ - Cifuentes Speaks Pre-Norwich

Martí Cifuentes has called on his Leicester City side to give everything in our pursuit of gaining a positive result at Norwich City on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-11-08T09:00+00:00

We meet the Canaries in a 3pm GMT kick-off at Carrow Road with both sides struggling to find form in the Sky Bet Championship. We’re without a win across our last five matches ahead of travelling to Norfolk.

Speaking to the media assembled at LCFC Training Ground on Thursday afternoon, Cifuentes spoke about a tricky period following the last international break which has seen us find ourselves in the bottom half.

‘Swallow the disappointment’

A chance to turn a corner this weekend.

With plenty of football yet to be played, there is time to regather some momentum and swing the pendulum back in our favour, though first the focus must be on halting a run of one win in 10 games.

It’s not a position Cifuentes is unfamiliar with himself, having experienced the ups and downs of the Championship in his previous managerial post at Queens Park Rangers.

“I think that shows how quick things go in football, especially in this division,” the Spaniard began. “Less than one month ago, we were in the play-offs and looking in a positive way. Unfortunately, now we are in a difficult run.

“Having been a manager in difficult runs, it was one year ago, more or less at this stage, we had a difficult one with QPR and I know that this division is ruthless. Then we had a spell where we had 13 games and won eight of them and only lost one. It can change quick.

“It shows that you need to make sure that you learn from what happened and are ready for the next challenge. That’s where my mindset is. We have to swallow the disappointment of the last result, but we move on quick because Saturday is the next and most important game.

“It’s always tough when you lose a football game. We know there is more on us as a club and as a team. It’s very important to move on and try to focus on being in the best position to compete on Saturday.

“To just complain or look back will not help us. Now it’s time to focus on the positives and make sure we are ready to play against a good team and be at the level we want to be at.

“We cannot lose the long-term vision, it’s absolutely fundamental. Since I came here, we’ve spoken about what we want and there’s no doubt that this Club deserves to be in the Premier League. This is what the Club should aim for, and we are totally committed on that.

“We’ve said that it should be in a sustained way through a certain identity that we are trying to implement, and we know, for instance, in the last few games, we need to produce more, attacking-wise.

“The most important thing is the culture that we need to set. At the same time, this division does not give you a break. You need to be at the top of your qualities, at 100 per cent, it doesn’t matter where you come from.”

‘Set the bar’

Disappointment at the full-time whistle on Tuesday.

Cifuentes sees the recent results as a sharp learning curve for the group and outlined how producing more quality in games is required, alongside maintaining the correct mentality - which he felt was present during the midweek draw with Middlesbrough.

“It’s an everyday learning; I learn every day,” the 43-year-old explained. “We learn about each other, the players learn more about what I expect and how we move forward. Definitely there are some things that we can still improve, there is no doubt about it.

“It’s important we understand all those things that we must improve and what has not gone well for us in the last games. The benchmark of what we want, in terms of attitude and character, is what we saw in the last game. That’s the main positive that we can take.

“Now that’s not enough, we need to add a lot of things that we know we can produce in terms of more quality on the ball. It was the game we had the least possession but for our way of playing, we know we need more.

“It’s definitely important to improve the levels of energy and personality. We need to make sure we produce at the levels we know we can play. There are some things that we cannot control and the outcome is that we can focus on our performance and what other things we need to do well and improve in order to get to the level we are looking for.

“I know what the fans want and I am 100 per cent sure that we are going to get there but it is very important that we stay together. The fans were fantastic for 95 minutes in this last game because they saw this attitude and character that we are asking for.

“The players did an excellent job in that sense. Now they have set the bar of what we expect in every game. Having said that, we want to finish this [block] in a good way. We know how important the game is on Saturday.”

‘Quality in the squad’

A difficult start to the season for Liam Manning at Carrow Road.

Saturday’s hosts sit inside the bottom three heading into the weekend’s fixtures. Although yet to taste victory on home soil during 25/26 and without success on the road since the end of August, Liam Manning’s side should not be underestimated, Cifuentes believes.

“It’s a very good club, a good team, with quality players,” he analysed. “They have got quality in the squad with their manager, who knows the league. He did a very good job at Bristol City. They can change systems - they can play a back-four, a back-three - so it’s going to be a game where we need to be on top of our game.

“It was probably not the start they were looking for. A club like Norwich, with the history that they’ve got, probably the targets for the season were not aligned with how they started.

“But I think that makes them dangerous, because obviously when a team doesn’t get the results, there is a lack of confidence, but there is no doubt that there is quality in that squad and they have a good manager.

“I watched the game against Sheffield Wednesday. They didn’t start well. It was a game with chances for both teams. They managed to stop a little bit these bad results and probably before this international break I think, for both teams, it is a good opportunity to break a bad dynamic.

“Despite the early disappointment with the start to the season, I can expect that it’s going to be a very tough game. Both teams will come in not the best dynamic and we need to make sure that we compete at our best.”

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