Leicester City may have collected all three points against Stoke City, but Marti Cifuentes walked off the pitch looking more irritated than relieved — and the frustration wasn’t aimed at his players, but at his own supporters.
Despite winning the match, the Foxes were second-best for long stretches. Stoke outplayed them everywhere it mattered: more shots, more efforts on target, more set-piece pressure and a near-relentless spell of dominance that had the King Power crowd groaning with every misplaced pass.
Leicester were lucky to be ahead at all. Asmir Begovic was forced into four major saves — three of them inside the box — including a stunning one-on-one stop to deny Manhoef and a superb fingertip tip-over from Jun-ho’s vicious volley. Without him, the game would’ve slipped away long before Leicester found their winner.
But instead of focusing on the result, a vocal section of the home crowd spent the afternoon expressing their irritation. Groans erupted every time a pass went backwards, every time Stoke pressed high, and every time Leicester lost control of possession — something that happened often, given the Foxes were chasing shadows for moments of the game.
After the match, Cifuentes snapped.
Marti on home crowd groans and frustrations:
‘every time we lose a ball in the build-up, it feels like the end of the world. It cannot be that every game we are not winning is the end of the world’
‘I’m aware we’re ambitious but it’s not the end of the world in November’
His message was clear: Leicester are in a building phase, performances will fluctuate, and panicking at every dip won’t help.
Cifuentes also refused to gloss over the fact that Stoke should have taken something from the game. The Potters registered 13 shots to Leicester’s five, forced 10 corners, and dominated key stretches. Their aggression, intensity and high press constantly unsettled the Foxes, who struggled to maintain rhythm.
But while Stoke played the better football, Leicester had the match-winner — and they had Begovic, who delivered an 8/10 performance that singlehandedly kept the Foxes alive during their worst spells.
Cifuentes’ irritation is rooted in context: he wants ambition, not entitlement. He wants standards, not panic. And, above all, he wants a home crowd that supports the team, not one that sighs the moment a pass isn’t perfect.
Leicester got the win. They got the clean moment they needed. And yet the mood in the stadium suggested something closer to a defeat.
No wonder the manager finally lost patience.