A new Fox in a legend’s socks: The emergence of Bilal El Khannouss
Sometimes it only takes one performance from one player to turn the narrative. Step up, Bilal El Khannouss.
As Leicester fans trooped down Raw Dykes Road after last night’s 3-1 win against West Ham, talked to their mates, got in the car and turned on their radios, they would presumably have heard as many different Man of the Match picks as I did.
I heard calls for Mads Hermansen, Conor Coady, Jannik Vestergaard, Wilfred Ndidi, Boubakary Soumare and Jamie Vardy as well as the one clear winner for me: Bilal El Khannouss.
Yes, Leicester conceded a huge number of shots again. But as porous as the defence is, there was an even more urgent need last night for Leicester to show they can create and threaten.
With Facundo Buonanotte having a rare off night in possession, it was down to El Khannouss to provide the spark.
When you support a team struggling at the wrong end of the table, you’re constantly looking for reliability. Someone you can trust to make that crucial save or block, to make that tackle in midfield or put a good chance away.
But you’re also looking for players you can trust to make the killer pass with exactly the right weight, timing and direction to split a defence and create an opportunity. El Khannouss did that just 90 seconds into the van Nistelrooy era.
We’ve seen that pass so many times over the past decade, whether from Riyad Mahrez, Youri Tielemans or James Maddison. They were all blessed to play with a dream of a centre-forward for a creative midfielder.
Now El Khannouss, like Buonanotte, gets the chance to create for Leicester’s greatest ever player. He’s also arguably got more bite than Mahrez, Maddison or Tielemans had - and that must appeal to Vardy as much as his ability to play defence-splitting passes.
El Khannouss was 8 years old when Jamie Vardy joined Leicester City, 10 when Vardy scored his first Premier League goal and turned 12 just days after Vardy and his team-mates lifted the Premier League trophy.
Watching Vardy‘s precise finish from El Khannouss’s pass, it was not van Nistelrooy that sprang to mind about the influence of a striker-turned-coach but Kevin Phillips. Once a team-mate of Vardy, the fact he is now 51 years old is another indicator of Vardy’s longevity.
In an interview with The Independent in 2019, Phillips said: “One of the biggest things that stood out with me with Jamie was that he was a fantastic player but everything was 100 miles per hour with him.”
“And that kind of related to his finishing. He would get himself a lot of opportunities and he’d smash them straight at the keeper.
“One of the things I started to help him with was: can you start to think about passing it into the corners? That sounds so obvious, but he may never have really been taught that on the training ground. It might have all been about: ‘I’ve got to hit the target.’ Well, yes, you do, but can you think through your process when you’re through on goal? Or, when you get half a yard, can you start curling it into the corners?”
This description will strike a chord with anyone who remembers that first Vardy season in the Premier League. His first top flight goal was a calmly placed side-footed finish past David de Gea in a high pressure situation but it was the exception to the rule for several months. It was the only goal Vardy scored in his first 26 Premier League appearances.
Phillips’s description of a striker snatching at chances brings back memories in particular of a 3-2 defeat at QPR that season when Vardy wasted numerous one-on-ones.
Doubts would have been creeping in as to whether he would make it among the elite. But, as in 2013 when the coaching team of Nigel Pearson, Craig Shakespeare and co convinced Vardy he had what it took to be a professional footballer, he had expert advice available.
The famous Vardy goal at The Hawthorns in April 2015 was the real catalyst for the turnaround in fortunes for both player and club, a goal that Phillips could have been describing four years later when interviewed.
Vardy’s goal last night was the perfect example of the cool side-footed finish into the corner we’ve seen so many times over the years. It was also a reminder that the right coach at the right time can make a huge difference to a player’s career.
There’s something about the arrival of van Nistelrooy at this time in Bilal El Khannouss’s development that feels timely. Leicester need goals. Van Nistelrooy wants us to create and attack more. Injuries have reduced our options. There’s an opening for a new hero.
This isn’t to suggest El Khannouss is going to play for Leicester City for over ten years and become a Premier League legend with our club - but it was the perfect moment for him to truly announce himself. It felt like the start of something for player, manager and, hopefully, club.
Standing alongside Jamie Vardy in front of the Kop after the game, El Khannouss told an interviewer:
“When you’re young, of course you’re dreaming of playing in the biggest league. That’s the Premier League and today I fulfilled my dream to score in the Premier League and assist. But like I say, it’s only the beginning of a long story and I’m very happy that Vards finished the goal.”
At this point he reached down to reveal he was wearing a pair of Vardy’s socks and the pair smiled. It was a nice moment that reflected the feelgood factor that van Nistelrooy will have to try to harness - and the hope that he has enough to work with to keep Leicester making moments in the Premier League beyond next May.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first game as Leicester City manager was the night football became fun again.