Van Nistelrooy did something ‘strange’ in baffling 3-0 Leicester mess vs Wolves
Ruud van Nistelrooy made some “peculiar” moves as Leicester fell to a miserable 3-0 defeat against Wolves, according to Courtney Sweetman-Kirk.
It was a terrible first half for the Foxes against a relegation rival on Sunday (22 December), as they found themselves 3-0 down at the break following some disastrous defensive errors.
The Dutchman then made two changes at half-time, with Wout Faes replacing the yellow-carded Jannick Vestergaard at centre-back and Harry Winks coming on for Oliver Skipp in the centre of midfield.
Those changes by the Leicester boss left Sweetman-Kirk somewhat surprised. Speaking on world feed commentary of the game about those changes, the former Sheffield United women’s striker said:
“Strange I mean Vestergaard on a yellow potentially makes sense, you don’t want to go down to ten players, Winks for Skipp is very much like for like in my opinion so you want to add more attacking threat really.
“You want to add more to the midfield in terms of attacking options so the likes of Buonanotte that likes to come forward and play those balls through and is happy to get the ball in tight areas in midfield and I don’t think the substitutes really change that.”
Van Nistelrooy then made two more changes seven minutes into the second half as Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Hamza Choudhury came on for Bilal El Khannouss and James Justin respectively.
That prompted Sweetman-Kirk to add: “Strange one from Van Nistelrooy, it’s seven minutes just into the second-half and I’m wondering why he’s so quick to make that change and didn’t just make them all at half-time, it’s a peculiar one.”
Ruud van Nistelrooy must help himself at Leicester
Football Insider Opinion
That means he is going to have to make the right decisions if he is to keep Leicester in the Premier League.
Given this was an opportunity to take points off a relegation rival he could ill afford to take a damage limitation approach as he seemed to do by not making more attacking changes at half-time.
It also seems strange that he then made more alterations so soon after the break, suggesting they were already being considered, and therefore could have been made all at once.
Leicester fans will be desperate to see the Dutchman guide them to safety this season, but somewhat odd moves such as this may not inspire a great deal of confidence.
If anything it could add more scrutiny to what changes he makes and at what point in games he makes them going forward this season.
In other news, Leicester are plotting to re-sign a midfielder in the January transfer window.
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