Ruud van Nistelrooy deserves backing at Leicester City - so can Jon Rudkin pull through?
As the clocks strike midnight, and we head into another no doubt eventful year following Leicester City, much feels on a knife edge around our club right now. Our chances of survival? 50/50. Keen on Ruud or unconvinced? A fanbase seemingly split down the middle.
For what it’s worth, I’m really encouraged by the early signs seen under Van Nistelrooy. There was undoubtedly the huge mistake of 135 minutes of Danny Ward but take those out of the equation and there are positives.
We’ve beaten a good calibre West Ham side, salvaged a spirited draw against a strong Brighton team, got to half time just a goal behind at an in-form Newcastle, given a decent account of ourselves at Anfield and arguably outplayed Manchester City.
Getting it right
Ruud inherited a stinker of a fixture list and that leads me to add a little extra credence to the theory that performances are more important than results right now. And, even though playing Ward was a gargantuan error, I can also see how it might have happened.
Imagine you’re Ruud, you’ve just inherited a squad so wedded to playing out from the back they’ll hold up ‘Miss u Enzo’ signs in nightclubs, and you now have a decision to make on which keeper plays in the absence of Mads Hermansen and Jakub Stolarczyk.
Either you abandon the principles you’re trying to show your players you’re true to and play Daniel Iversen because he’s the better shot-stopper, or you pick Ward, maintain the style, credibility in what you’re asking the players to do and hope for the best.
He got it wrong, but at least he’s shown a ruthlessness since that Wolves game which probably means, rightfully, Danny Ward’s Leicester City career is over.
Whilst it’s been reported one of the factors that got Van Nistelrooy the job was his ‘aura’, and that might seem a bit absurd, that’s manifesting itself in a manager setting standards in his interviews and bringing some accountability when they are not met.
There are things, tactically, that I’m seeing from Van Nistelrooy that Steve Cooper cannot even begin to comprehend.
The closing stages of the Brighton home game were fascinating: an outrageously high defensive line and Victor Kristiansen taking up a more advanced position than Stephy Mavididi to help him isolate the full back one vs one.
The Manchester City game demonstrated an ability to innovate: four players pushed right up against their backline to give Harry Winks and Boubakary Soumare the space to dictate behind.
The way he’s freed Bilal El Khannouss to float across the pitch and sprinkle the magic he’s beginning to show he’s capable of.
How we’ve approached games against superior sides with a plan more intricate than sitting everyone in our own half like the abomination served up by Cooper at home to Chelsea.
We have to remember Van Nistelrooy is working with a squad that was limited even before the likes of Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira were lost to injury. You have to wonder how he’d be utilising players of that calibre were they available to him - certainly it would be better than Cooper did with either.
Ultimately, he needs backing. Not just from the stands, but from the boardroom too.
Because we’re at an inflection point.
Over to you, Mr Rudkin
This can be a January where Ruud gets what he needs, and he gets it early. A right back, a winger, a striker and a centre half. Young players with resale value who are comfortable on the ball, fit and mobile. Some creativity that offers an alternative to the ingenuity of Buonanotte and El Khannouss in central areas. The antidote to the tired and uninspiring summer of Decordova-Reid, Ayew and Skipp.
Or it can be a January that, unfortunately, would be true to form. Where we don’t get what we need, and what we do get comes late in the window, after critical opportunities for points against Crystal Palace and Fulham.
Jon Rudkin has come under much scrutiny recently. This January could be the straw that breaks that particular camel’s back.
If we hear familiar tones from Van Nistelrooy about a lack of knowledge on the funds available, Rudkin has to go. If we hear that business can only be done if we shift players out, given Rudkin has demonstrated a consistent inability to sell players that are surplus to requirements, he has to go. And if we end this window with just one or two through the door or a make-do late loan signing, he has failed us again and has to go.
January has not historically been a time where Jon does his best work. Last season it was Stefano Sensi who couldn’t come through the door, even for next to nothing, because we’d not managed to sell.
The one before: a cavalry of Kristiansen, Tete and Souttar arrived but not in time to play against Fulham, Nottingham Forest or Brighton that month – and it was a cavalry that later looked like the potential cause of the alleged PSR breach. The one before that: nothing. Before that, in 2020/21, a deal for Merih Demiral failed to materialise as Brendan Rodgers prayed to the heavens for a centre half for the second year running, having been blessed with Ryan Bennett the year before.
The problem has often been that we cannot buy until we have sold. And unfortunately that’s not an area where Jon excels either. The only first team outbound for a fee in January across the last five seasons? Demarai Gray to Leverkusen for £2m on 31st January 2021.
So, suffice to say, if we need to sell in order to buy this January, Ruud will be left high and dry. We’ve struggled to raise revenue for unwanted players during periods where we’ve had arguably the strongest squads in our history and when you look down the squad list now, there are not too many saleable assets who are not needed – Luke Thomas, Danny Ward, Wout Faes, Daniel Iversen. Roll up, roll up…
This has been painfully evident glancing at the list of substitutes when we’ve needed an impact player in recent weeks. Players that have been allowed to leave for nothing in recent years – Ayoze Perez, Dennis Praet, Kelechi Iheanacho, Daniel Amartey, Nampalys Mendy, Caglar Soyuncu, Youri Tielemans, Islam Slimani – some of them top class, some of them underwhelming in a Leicester shirt, all of them better than anything sat on the sidelines for us today.
Some of these could even have been retained in the summer rather than spending £25m on the likes of Oliver Skipp – we’d be better off with Praet and Iheanacho on new deals than any of the guys that came through the door this summer.
Our contracts and player trading has been woefully mismanaged in recent years and this January might be when it all comes home to roost. We’ve stumbled upon a decent manager with Van Nistelrooy, I’m sure of it. But he can only work with what he’s been given.
Over to you, Jon Rudkin, what will you give him to start the New Year?
