Van Nistelrooy's defensive delusions and Newcastle loss verdict

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·16 décembre 2024

Van Nistelrooy's defensive delusions and Newcastle loss verdict

We were informed of something interesting by former Fox and current Manchester United defender Jonny Evans recently. In an interview about his then-interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Northern Irishman told the world that the latest Leicester City manager was "obsessed with defensive structure".

If Van Nistelrooy's thinking is truly defensively sound, then he needs to head back to the drawing board. He must, at some point in the very near future, convey to the King Power hierarchy that Leicester's centre backs and full backs are pretty inadequate too. The transfer market is open in January - maybe Aiyawatt, or 'Khun Top', Srivaddhanaprabha should get his chequebook out. Do they still exist by the way? Anyway, if the Foxes are not careful, these blatant inadequacies will lead to City's unavoidable relegation.

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In addition to that topic, the Dutchman also offered his verdict on the Newcastle United demolition job his LCFC side endured amid defensive delusions. Was the retired Netherlands player realistic in his St. James' Park assessment? Alternatively, did the Leicester gaffer cop out and just give the usual 'we go again' rubbish? We shall see.

Ruud van Nistelrooy on the thrashing at Newcastle United

City were thoroughly beaten up north on Saturday. It was a bit of an embarrassment for the Blue Army, I'm sure. 'Unacceptable' is a word that crops up when thinking of the defence at present. Not to mention that the east Midlands couldn't muster a goal of their own, something we've relied on due to an unsatisfactory back line.

Hopefully van Nistelrooy has a better match plan for Wolverhampton Wanderers, because the previous display wasn't anywhere near good enough! But what did the 48-year-old say of the performance after the final whistle?:

"We will use this game for the development of the team. It was hard. It was 1-0 at half-time. We were a bit lucky not to be down by more goals. It's costly when you concede in such standard set-piece situations. Then it was going to be hard to turn it around.We know how intense Newcastle players are and the intensity in which they play. A lot of the chances they created were form our ball losses and they got quick in the counter-attack. We kept going and trying, but we have to take this one on the chin and move on."