‘Impose Our Style’ - Cifuentes’ Preston Preview

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‘Impose Our Style’ - Cifuentes’ Preston Preview

Martí Cifuentes is keen to improve the level of performance when his Leicester City side travel to take on Preston North End this Saturday.

2025-08-15T09:30+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

15 Aug, 2025

‘Impose Our Style’ - Cifuentes’ Preston Preview

Martí Cifuentes is keen to improve the level of performance when his Leicester City side travel to take on Preston North End this Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-08-15T09:30+01:00

‘Impose Our Style’ - Cifuentes’ Preston Preview

Martí Cifuentes is keen to improve the level of performance when his Leicester City side travel to take on Preston North End this Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-08-15T09:30+01:00

‘Impose Our Style’ - Cifuentes’ Preston Preview

Martí Cifuentes is keen to improve the level of performance when his Leicester City side travel to take on Preston North End this Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-08-15T09:30+01:00

‘Impose Our Style’ - Cifuentes’ Preston Preview

Martí Cifuentes is keen to improve the level of performance when his Leicester City side travel to take on Preston North End this Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-08-15T09:30+01:00

Attention turns back to the Sky Bet Championship at the weekend as we head to Deepdale for a 3pm BST kick-off against the Lilywhites - the first league away fixture of Cifuentes’ tenure.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, City’s Manager shared his thoughts on losing out to Huddersfield Town on penalties in the Carabao Cup First Round, reflecting on the improvements he wants to see when returning to league duties.

‘The mindset is clear’

Louis Page’s first-ever competitive senior appearance was one of the positive milestones from Wednesday.

Switching up the XI at Accu Stadium by making seven changes, providing minutes to more players in the squad, Cifuentes challenged players in his squad to stake a claim for a starting spot in the coming weeks.

With a long season ahead, everyone will be required to contribute towards a successful campaign, having also provided opportunities for several Academy graduates to gain further experience in west Yorkshire.

“It was important for me to get to know all the players better, to give the opportunity to everyone to show they can be ready at any moment,” the Spaniard outlined to the media on Wednesday evening.

“I’m a big believer in that so definitely some of the players showed they are ready, and some others we could perhaps expect a bit more. Jakub [Stolarczyk], I think, was really good. He saved not only the penalty during the 90 minutes but as well during the penalty shootout was really good. It’s the lottery of the penalties.

“The players’ mindset is clear. Everyone wants to play well. When you are on the pitch and you are a professional, you have pride as well. We’re trying to build something, but we are in a transition moment. I have no complaints about the professionalism of everyone, the commitment and dedication that there is during training and in the games.

“It says a lot about the job the people before me have done to develop the players and the job the Club has done in terms of philosophy. And at the end, they are here because they are good players, not just because they are from the Academy. I think it’s a great foundation because they feel for the Club and that always creates a mental edge as well.”

'Make sure we're ready'

Looking to back up victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

Keen to bounce back quickly from Wednesday’s disappointment, playing again less than 72 hours later, the Foxes now have a chance to go two from two in the Championship, following victory over Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the new campaign. Lessons must be learned from midweek, however, having twice led in the 90 minutes.

“Overall, the whole team performance (against Huddersfield), including myself, was below what we wanted,” the 43-year-old admitted. “When you get this feeling, you want to make sure you can be on the pitch as soon as possible to have a much better performance.

“Definitely it’s a tight schedule, but we’re going to try to recover well, to make sure we’re ready for the game, and of course try to improve the levels of our performance.

“There are different ways of protecting (a lead) and the way I see it, it’s not just about defending, it’s about when you take the lead, you need to be more dominant than ever, selecting the right time to accelerate the game and when it’s time to bide your time as well, because they are chasing.

“But overall, you need to be dominant, use the possession to make sure that you control the game and I felt it was a bit too much up and down (against Huddersfield) and we were too long on the transitions. That’s because the way we attacked was not the best.”

‘Never easy’

Applauding the travelling support at Huddersfield.

Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston drew their opening fixture against Queens Park Rangers before progressing in the Carabao Cup, with Cifuentes outlining their qualities and what he expects to face, also paying tribute to the Foxes supporters who will be making yet another trip north to cheer the team on in Lancashire.

“We know they can be a team that is very direct and very physical,” he analysed. “It’s never easy to play at their ground and we need to make sure we are ready to impose our style and, at the same time, to be able to compete in these kind of situations that I’m sure we’re going to have to face.

“I also need to say thanks to all the fans who came here (Accu Stadium) in the cup game. I know that midweek is not easy for travel, so I really appreciate that. Hopefully we can deliver the three points after, unfortunately, not having the victory. We’re going to try our best on Saturday.”

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