‘A New Opportunity’ – Cifuentes Ahead Of Hull Clash

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‘A New Opportunity’ – Cifuentes Ahead Of Hull Clash

Martí Cifuentes expects an improvement in the performance level when travelling to meet Hull City on Tuesday evening.

2025-10-21T09:00+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

21 Oct, 2025

‘A New Opportunity’ – Cifuentes Ahead Of Hull Clash

Martí Cifuentes expects an improvement in the performance level when travelling to meet Hull City on Tuesday evening.

Sam Jones

2025-10-21T09:00+01:00

‘A New Opportunity’ – Cifuentes Ahead Of Hull Clash

Martí Cifuentes expects an improvement in the performance level when travelling to meet Hull City on Tuesday evening.

Sam Jones

2025-10-21T09:00+01:00

‘A New Opportunity’ – Cifuentes Ahead Of Hull Clash

Martí Cifuentes expects an improvement in the performance level when travelling to meet Hull City on Tuesday evening.

Sam Jones

2025-10-21T09:00+01:00

‘A New Opportunity’ – Cifuentes Ahead Of Hull Clash

Martí Cifuentes expects an improvement in the performance level when travelling to meet Hull City on Tuesday evening.

Sam Jones

2025-10-21T09:00+01:00

A 1-1 scoreline against Portsmouth on Saturday evening was our fifth stalemate in eight Sky Bet Championship matches and third straight home draw, with Aaron Ramsey’s first-half goal not enough to earn three points at King Power Stadium.

Speaking following that encounter and ahead of our upcoming visit to Hull’s MKM Stadium, Cifuentes shared his thoughts on where improvements need to be made in order to turn draws into victories.

‘Not at the level’

Ayew went close late on against Pompey.

Saturday’s reflections centred around a disappointing second half display against Pompey, during which John Swift’s equaliser saw the south coast outfit take home a share of the spoils, with Leicester unable to convert late chances to edge back in front.

“We tried to be quite clear but unfortunately, we couldn’t execute it in the second half,” the Spaniard commented. “We knew from last season that they like to press and their style is that they want to defend forward.

“I think we had a fantastic first half with a lot of quality combinations, understanding that sometimes we need to exploit the spaces in behind. We could find the pockets with good combinations from Aaron and JJ (Jordan James).

“We could see in many periods of the first half what we were trying to do. It’s 13 shots [off target], six on goal, some good saves from the ‘keeper, but we know that a 1-0 advantage is not enough, especially in the Championship.

“In the second half, they were a little more aggressive, allowing us to attack three vs. three with three fast players, which is why we introduced Pato (Patson Daka) just a few minutes into the second half to use his pace. Unfortunately, we didn’t.

“We had some turnovers; the goal was exactly like this. We didn’t react well enough in the defensive transition and then we conceded a counter which changed the momentum of the game.

Preparations for Tuesday in Seagrave.

“In the last 15-20 minutes we were gaining a bit more control. We had Jordan [Ayew’s] chance and Luke [Thomas’] chance to win the game, but the second half was not at the level that we wanted. I’m very self-critical and we should have done much better.

“The way we tried to play, sometimes the positional play is about using the space. We have a tendency in the process against a team like this to sometimes get caught a little bit thinking too much about playing through and playing into the pockets.

“Football is about space and that’s the formation of this way of playing. The space in the second half was in behind the backline. You need to exploit those other spaces; sometimes it’s through, sometimes it’s around, sometimes it’s over.

“It’s obviously much easier to play a five-yard pass than a 30-yard pass. We had to first attract them, invite them and then use the gaps, especially when you have players as fast as Abdul [Fatawu], Pato and others.

“That’s what we missed. It’s a process of growing and building a team. Eight weeks ago, the team was not as confident as it is now on some phases of the build-up. Today (Saturday) was more difficult in terms of our build-up in zone one.

“Portsmouth defended almost in a man-to-man so we changed our formation and positioning in zone one in order to create more situations, but we got caught a little bit. It’s different solutions and different tools that you need.”

‘Use their strengths’

Celebrating a home debut goal.

Positives from the weekend came in the form of Burnley loanee Ramsey’s first goal for the Club, as well as a first start for fellow loan signing Julián Carranza, one of three forwards currently vying for a spot in the starting XI.

On Ramsey, the Manager said: “I’m happy with his performance in the pockets, his energy and there are always things we can help him to improve but he’s a very good player and it’ll be good for his confidence that, after the disappointment of his debut, he responds, shows personality and scores the goal.

“He had not played for a while after his suspension with the red card. With Bobby going away with Jamaica and Pato (Patson Daka) and Jordan [Ayew] having long trips with the national team, we thought it was a good moment, especially because it was the first starts for Julián and Aaron together.

“It’s important that we could play one of the first games with a six, an eight and a 10. Something that perhaps at the beginning of the season was more difficult to find because Bobby was coming back from an injury, Aaron had not arrived yet and so on.

“We have three different no.9s. We know that, especially Jordan, he can play in all different positions. It’s about using their strengths in every game situation and against different opposition.

“[There were] good things (from Carranza). It was important for him to feel the confidence. For a striker to come into the Championship is never easy because the mentality and intensity of the defenders may be a bit different, but I think he coped well with good actions and he is going to grow with us.”

‘Foxes never quit’

A win at Birmingham for the Tigers at the weekend.

With the Hull fixture arriving just 72 hours after our latest draw, the chance to quickly respond to the disappointment can only be a benefit, according to Cifuentes, who says everyone is demanding more and remains unsatisfied with the current run of form.

“There’s always two ways of looking at things,” the 43-year-old explained. “We can look at the positives and say it is a lot of games undefeated. The reality is that drawing doesn’t get you far in this league and I think the feeling in the changing room after the game felt like a defeat.

“Everyone was down and I like that despite the fact the second half was not great, we had this relentless Foxes never quit mentality, it was there. But still we need to look at ourselves.

“That was the message at the end of the game because everybody was very frustrated, obviously, that we could not offer a win in front of our supporters. I told them to swallow this disappointment and take this as energy and a boost for the game on Tuesday.

“That’s very good that we have a new opportunity to improve and all this frustration and all this anger, put it into a very good performance on Tuesday because we are definitely going to play against a very good team.

“They got a very strong win away today (on Saturday) and are going to be in a good mood. We need to use all of these angles to have a good performance.”

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