Cifuentes’ words "It was definitely not good enough - a really poor performance and that's very disappointing because we had 15 days to make sure that we were prepared for this game. "We spoke a lot about the urgency, about the level of intensity but we were very far off it." He added: "The level (today) was poor for everything. That's not the standards that we're used to, I think all of the players know that. "It's very easy to go into specific situations if you want, but the whole performance and the game as a whole was not great. "Stoke were better than us and that's it." Is that self critical? Not really. Just forced myself to watch the highlights. 15 days to deliver that display!
As mentioned by a few here, I feel that despite the injuries, El Cif got the formation and players totally wrong I'm no tactical genius, far from it but yesterday seemed completely off. To lay the entire blame for such an abject defeat reeks of peak Hughes
Start your week off right with 2000 words on our rapid descent to the third division. https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/64074
Can't argue with any of that. I've been saying it for ages, we could have the best manager in world football but they would struggle with the standard of players we have. Granted we have loads of injuries but even those players aren't even that good. Chair, when he's played has been pretty poor. JCS shouldn't even be in the team photo anymore. Cook has been ****e since he returned even taking his goals into consideration. This team is poor, very poor and will achieve nothing until every player bar one or two has moved on. We don't have any player assets worth more than maybe 2m at the very most. When the likes of Smyth is thought of as one of our better players then the bar is set really low. (No offence to Paul but he is ****e). I was going to say that Madsen is one of the worst footballers I have ever seen at this level but I don't actually think he is a footballer. Whoever scouted this bloke should be sacked immediately.
Defend Clive’s stats on Madsen, anybody? Some more tales from the numbers. Madsen goals 0, assists 0, shots 0, xg 0, offsides 0, expected assists 0, key passes 0, passes into final third 0, backwards passes 5, passes completed 8/14 (57%), touches 22, fouls 0, fouled 0, possession lost 11, dribbled past 0, clearances 0, interceptions 0, ball recovery 0. This is your central midfielder. We spent millions on this guy. He may as well not be there. He makes Andre Dozzell look like Pickle Rick. He’s not alone in a team that can turn any situation into a pass back to their own goalkeeper (Lucas Andersen goals 0, assists 0, shots 1, on target 1, xg 0.15, offside 0, expected assists 0, key passes 0, passes into final third 1, backwards passes 6, passes completed 11/14 79%, touches 19, fouled 0, fouls 0, possession lost 7, dribbled past 2, clearances 0, interceptions 0, recoveries 2) but, honestly, **** me. He talks about watching this waste of space for a ten minute spell, I did that in a pre Christmas game and saw how useless he was, I’d be happy now to take a loss on this imposter.
How is it that Cifuentes seems to be coated in Teflon throughout this shambles? We’ve sacked loads of managers for having started the season as badly as we did, but no mention of that with him. Now we have 7 points from the last 33 and a disgraceful 1 from the last 18. Yet no clamour from fans or ‘votes of confidence’ from the board. Mystifying.
I'd say the club have no choice but to stick with him...... Both he and others signed new contracts in October (?) last year, no idea how long these contracts are for, we're not allowed to know, but with the finances being on a knife edge for FFP or whatever it's called these days there's a good chance that the club can't afford to sack him as it can't afford the payoff? Plus by the sound coming from the fan's at Stoke on Saturday he still retains their support.....
There was a fair amount of booing at FT. I didn't even bother to do that Stoke away seems to be turning into a guaranteed sh!t performance every season
Cifuentes certainly isn't blameless in all this, some of his decisions and tactics boil my urine. But. We can't keep sacking managers after relatively short spells and taking on a new one. Then rinsing and repeating. Ad nauseam. This bunch of pathetic players need to stand up, show some pride, fight and be counted. And don't get me started on Nourri or the medical/health expert or whatever he is called.
Was that aimed at Cifuentes or the players? There was the sound of the Cifuentes song coming across the stream and as it had no commentary it picked up all the crowd noise plus expletives!!!!!!
Other fans I spoke to were unimpressed with our tactics and many of the players, so probably fair to say that the booing reflected dissatisfaction on both counts What constantly baffles me is why we start so many games with a lack of energy and movement, yet up both when we're behind. Stoke are a very average side and the minimum expectation should've been a draw, but once they were 2 up I felt that the game was gone. The triple substitution did increase our energy level but too little too late (again)
Exactly this. Against poor teams like Stoke, get on the front foot from the off, pressure them, get the crowd nervous. The way we start, we allow poor teams to get a foothold. It's all lovely and comfortable for them. We're a dream to play against. Cifuentes said he wanted us to start with energy. Well, if it's not happening mate, haul your captain over and make it clear to everyone to snap out of the lethargy and start matches bloody properly.
I did it at derby away and it was shocking to witness. At one point he received a pass, under no pressure and knocked it out of play.
I've not been impressed with Martis tactics for most of the season. Very, very rarely will he deviate from his one up front. When he has done it's usually because we are 2 or 3 nil down. The 3 players meant to support this isolated striker are always too far from play and this all stems from the insistence of playing out from the back. Everyone has to drop deeper for this to work, to give an option. It's great if your players are good enough to do it but unfortunately ours are nowhere near that level. Our press on opposition defenders is non existent away from home. We constantly play the ball backwards, enabling the opposition to get back in shape. We hesitate with the ball until Dunne has got in the area from his forwards position of ****ing right back! I've totally lost the will to be even arsed this season (similar to the players) and I predict next season will be a real relegation scrap.
