The manager of Leicester City delivers his thoughts on the 3-1 loss to Sheffield United, the club’s first New Year’s Day setback since 2008.
Marti Cifuentes has appealed for Leicester City reinforcements following a disappointing start to the new year at Sheffield United.
City were soundly defeated by the Blades, with Cifuentes conceding that the hosts were superior in practically every facet of the game and that his team failed to match their enthusiasm and made too many mistakes defensively and in possession.
When asked how these blunders may be avoided, Cifuentes mentioned the transfer window, which is currently open.
“We keep training, we keep pushing,” Cifuentes explained. “We are in a terrible position in terms of injuries. The window is opening, so perhaps we can acquire the assistance we require at the same time.
“Everybody understands that we need to improve and reinforce. We have some injuries, but as a squad, we are constantly striving to develop.”
Cifuentes has also called for a “higher level of accountability” from City’s current players.
He believes there were individual blunders leading up to all three Blades scores.
Cifuentes stated, “It was not a good performance.” Congratulations to Sheffield United, who were superior in many aspects of the game. Most of them. This is a bad performance. We weren’t at the level.
“There is a reality to the Championship. You need to rush and win your duels; we didn’t. Three individual errors in the three goals hurt us.
“It was quite poor. There were plenty of turnovers. We need to be more personable when we’re on the ball.
“We want the players to recognize that we need to be more accountable. We went from a game with high enthusiasm to today’s performance, which was completely different.
“I’ve mentioned we need to work a lot on our consistency. That comes with recognizing how relentless this league is. You must always compete at your peak performance.
“The most important aspect of competing in this league is your ability to sprint, win duels, and then put the ball on the ground and play the way you want to play. It’s really difficult if you don’t start with the basics. Today, Sheffield United outperformed us in this area.”
“You must match the energy and level of physicality. We knew Sheffield United would play just as they did. We were well-prepared. But we lost a variety of duels over the pitch.
“When we had the ball, we made numerous technical blunders. Then it is tough to get any momentum in the game.
“That explains why the first 60 minutes were so horrible. I told the lads that even if they were bad, they should grind it out and compete.
“In the first half, there was an error on the set-play, both in the marking and in the six-yard box. Our first half performance was quite disappointing because we should have generated more and had far better ball sequences.
“The second and third were individual errors.” We need to work together to correct them better.
“This is a terrible performance. You must be prepared to deliver consistently at 110 percent without making individual blunders.
“There is no hiding. It has remained consistent. As a coach, I need to improve my ability to remediate those mistakes.”
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