We Need To Improve, Says Cifuentes

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We Need To Improve, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes acknowledged that his side were not at the top of their game in Saturday’s 2-1 reverse to Preston North End.

2025-08-17T09:00+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

17 Aug, 2025

We Need To Improve, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes acknowledged that his side were not at the top of their game in Saturday’s 2-1 reverse to Preston North End.

Sam Jones

2025-08-17T09:00+01:00

We Need To Improve, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes acknowledged that his side were not at the top of their game in Saturday’s 2-1 reverse to Preston North End.

Sam Jones

2025-08-17T09:00+01:00

We Need To Improve, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes acknowledged that his side were not at the top of their game in Saturday’s 2-1 reverse to Preston North End.

Sam Jones

2025-08-17T09:00+01:00

We Need To Improve, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes acknowledged that his side were not at the top of their game in Saturday’s 2-1 reverse to Preston North End.

Sam Jones

2025-08-17T09:00+01:00

Leicester City beaten 2-1 by Preston North End in the Sky Bet Championship
Martí Cifuentes provided his post-match reaction following a first league defeat of the season
City’s Manager was ‘very disappointed’ with the performance at Deepdale
Jeremy Monga scored to become our youngest-ever goalscorer before a late Preston winner

The Foxes fell to a first defeat of the Sky Bet Championship season at Deepdale as Milutin Osmajić scored the Lilywhites' winner five minutes from time, after Jeremy Monga’s composed equaliser had cancelled out an early opener from Alfie Devine.

The 16-year-old became our youngest-ever goalscorer in the process, but it wasn’t enough to take anything back from Lancashire and Cifuentes cut a frustrated figure after the final whistle, especially with the manner of the goals conceded.

“We are very disappointed about the performance, not only about the result,” the Spaniard admitted. “I think the first goal we conceded was something that definitely we should do better with.

“We spoke about that they play with two strikers and they like have one target player to set and one to run. It looked very easy for them to put one ball in behind, the covers weren’t good enough and the way we handled the situation from there was not good enough.

“The game was always going to be difficult. Perhaps we did the most difficult without playing the best football. We managed to get [back to] the draw and then we were putting some pressure on in various situations. They score a counter goal that was a little bit a habit of the game.

Photo 1/34

Imagery from Saturday's Sky Bet Championship clash with Preston at Deepdale.

“We were not good enough. We have to travel together, attack as a unit and then press. They managed to build long transitions and counters and unfortunately that was the case on the second goal.

“We knew what kind of team they like to have and obviously for us it was about trying to impose our style. We want to put the ball on the ground, play and attack quick. Unfortunately, today we didn’t have the fluidity to counter press quick and couldn’t build on that physicality.”

With another 44 league matches remaining, City’s Manager is confident that the team will begin to settle into the season and gel as a unit, but knows the areas that require immediate improvement in order to return to winning ways.

“The reality is that it’s never going to be a perfect game,” the 43-year-old continued. “It’s impossible to be dominant for 95 minutes mentally, in terms of capacity to focus and the concentration that is needed and required to go in these games.

“It was like the first half against Sheffield Wednesday, we lose a little bit and today was a lot of up and downs and turnovers and it’s something that we definitely need to improve.”

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