Roy Keane has delivered a scathing verdict on Ruud van Nistelrooy’s struggling Leicester – claiming that they already ‘look like a Championship team’. Leicester, who appointed Van Nistelrooy on a two-and-a-half-year contract in November, needed to beat champions in-waiting Liverpool at home on Sunday but fell to a 1-0 defeat, confirming their relegation.
Former Manchester United striker Van Nistelrooy has only won two league games since his arrival and Leicester recently broke the English top-flight record for successive defeats without scoring a single goal. Ex-United team-mate Keane reckons that the belief has been sucked out of the Foxes’ squad, saying that there’s been ‘no reaction’ to Van Nistelrooy replacing Steve Cooper.
“It’s been tough for Leicester this season,” Keane said on Sky Sports. “It’s been tough for Ruud since he’s come in, there are big problems, particularly at home, they can’t score a goal. Defensively, they look so weak. They look like a Championship side.
“They must be low on confidence, no self-belief, I think there will be players in that dressing room that Leicester will be dreading (facing), particularly if Liverpool start quickly and score an early goal.
“It’ll be a tough afternoon for Leicester, they’ve been up against it all season, obviously they changed their manager, there’s been no real reaction to Ruud coming in. They’re up against it.”
Asked by Micah Richards how a manager can turn such dire form around and what the reasons behind it are, Keane replied: “A bit of everything goes into the mix. There’s not a great atmosphere here, the fans have turned a little bit, maybe a little bit on Ruud and the ownership, but they kind of of turned on the previous manager here even though he was doing okay when you look back at it.
“There’s definitely unrest in the camp which doesn’t help the players, and if Liverpool start quickly and go a goal up after five or 10 minutes, it’ll be ugly today. But players have to go and be professional, play with a bit of pride and I think the players will try, obviously, they are doing that but I think their confidence and the belief has gone out of the dressing room.”
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Ahead of facing Liverpool, Van Nistelrooy dropped a hint that he’s committed to Leicester for next season when they’ll almost certainly be playing in the Championship. “It’s a bigger thing here,” the Dutchman explained. “We’re trying to shape a future here and those weeks are vital for every player. That is what keeps us going.”
On Leciester’s impending relegation, Van Nistelrooy added: “We’ve been in these circumstances [in the bottom three] for a long time. It’s not a matter of it being mathematically done or not, it’s about us showing ourselves in every possible way for every minute we’re in this league. It doesn’t affect that bit.”
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