What can FPL managers expect from van Nistelrooy’s Leicester?

There is excitement at Leicester following the appointment of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who took charge of his first Foxes match on Tuesday night.

The 48-year-old has signed a deal with the club until June 2027, having recently left Manchester United after the arrival of Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford.

Van Nistelrooy replaces Steve Cooper, who was sacked after only 12 matches in charge.

In this article, we take a closer look at van Nistelrooy and ask what we can expect from a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective.

RUUD VAN NISTELROOY: THE HISTORY

The Dutchman wound down a successful playing career in 2012, having netted 249 league goals in 449 appearances.

As well as scoring goals by the bucketload, van Nistelrooy was influenced by some of the best football coaches in the business, including Sir Bobby Robson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello, Manuel Pellegrini, Frank Rijkaard, Louis van Gaal and Dick Advocaat.

After hanging up his boots, he started out as a forward coach at the PSV academy, helping nurture the likes of Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke. He joined the Dutch national team as assistant to Guus Hiddink in 2014 and later Frank de Boer at Euro 2020.

He got his first taste of senior club management at PSV in the 2022/23 season, guiding the Eindhoven club to victory in the Dutch Cup, the Dutch Super Cup and a runners-up finish in the Eredivisie behind Arne Slot’s Feyenoord. 

PSV also gave a good account of themselves in Europe, coming through two play-off rounds, eliminating Monaco and Rangers, to reach the group stage of the Europa League. There they finished second in their group to Arsenal, whom they beat 2-0 in their home group-stage match. They were knocked out in the play-off round by serial Europa League winners Sevilla, 3-2 on aggregate.

Van Nistelrooy stepped down with one match of the season remaining, citing a lack of support from the hierarchy.

Above: Ruud van Nistelrooy’s managerial record at PSV Eindhoven (league only)

Van Nistelrooy couldn’t resist the call to join up with compatriot Erik ten Hag at Manchester United last summer but the return to Old Trafford was short-lived on account of Ten Hag receiving his marching orders in October.

Van Nistelrooy suddenly found himself thrust into the spotlight when he was asked to step in as interim boss while United secured the services of Ruben Amorim.

That gave him four matches in charge – and he made the most of his chance, helming the club to four unbeaten matches in the League Cup, Premier League and Europa League:

• Manchester United 5-2 Leicester (EFL Cup)
• Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea (Premier League)
• Manchester United 2-0 PAOK Salonika (Europa League)
• Manchester United 4-0 Leicester (Premier League)

Coincidentally, two of the three wins came against Leicester – and even van Nistelrooy was surprised by the sudden job offers, one of which reportedly came from former club Hamburg.

“To be fair, what happened after the games [with United], the amount of interest that all of a sudden was there for me and the options that came along, I was astonished a little bit by it. 

“It was four games. I’ve managed a full season at PSV, I was able to win the cup and the charity shield, I had the year before in the Championship with Jong PSV. I’ve been in coaching in the U19s before and with the national team. It never got this reaction from the football world.” – Ruud van Nistelrooy on the shop window that is managing Man Utd

RUUD VAN NISTELROOY: PLAYING STYLE/TACTICS

Van Nistelrooy’s first preference is to play attacking football. Before his first match in charge of United, against Leicester in the League Cup, he suggested he wanted his team to take the handbrake off.

“My team talk was all about giving the supporters something to cheer about, with lots of possession and attacking football. The most important thing is showing passion, show energy, play together as a team, get the crowd going and have a great night of football. We were knocked down [in defeat to West Ham] but United is all about getting back up, fighting and playing attacking, winning football.” – Ruud van Nistelrooy’s pre-match interview ahead of Man Utd v Leicester in League Cup

On that occasion, the Dutchman’s tactics paid off, as they stormed to a 5-2 win. He was taking charge of a side rendered ineffective by Ten Hag’s confusing instructions and lack of direction. The players needed to be given the confidence to play freely and without fear. 

They adopted the same approach against Leicester in their 3-0 Premier League win, with Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte dominating as number sixes, wing-back Nassair Mazraoui inverting into midfield to play a very advanced role, and Bruno Fernandes essentially given licence to roam forward and wreak havoc up front.

In fact, Bruno scored four goals in van Nistelrooy’s four matches in charge and produced four attacking returns in the two Premier League matches under the Dutchman.

Van Nistelrooy knows however, that managing Manchester United and Leicester City are two very different kettles of fish, and so we cannot expect a gung-ho approach just yet.

“I’m thinking of one thing before every game and that’s winning it. When you play top teams or mid-table teams or lower-ranked teams, it sometimes requires a different approach. The style of play adjusts depending on how can we win.

“I’m not a romantic manager who puts style ahead of a result. I love style, I love having the ball, I love creating lots of opportunities, I love pressing a team high but we are facing opponents and we’re not the dominant side in this league.” – Ruud van Nistelrooy speaking on Monday on his side’s characteristics

“The foundation for us forward, what I try to comment on in the past days, is that foundation of everybody working their socks off, everybody fighting for every inch, everybody tackling, everybody together defending. And from there on, we can look further.” – Ruud van Nistelrooy, speaking after the game on Tuesday

At PSV Eindhoven, van Nistelrooy set his team up mostly in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation. With players like Gakpo, Xavi Simons and Anwar El Ghazi in his attack, he adopted a front-footed approach. It garnered goals galore too. His PSV side were the highest scorers in the division with 89 goals – eight more than Feyenoord – but they had the sixth-leakiest defence.

It seems that experience left its mark, with United defender Jonny Evans telling 4-4-2 that the Dutchman was now “obsessed” with defensive structure.

Indeed van Nistelrooy admitted on Monday that he had already begun work on trying to stiffen up the rearguard.

“[My focus on defensive structures] manifests in meetings, in drills on the training pitch. Yesterday and today it has been a topic of discussion. How can the back four play together with the sixes in front, how high is the line, what are the body positions, who’s running, who’s following who, body positions, etc? There’s a lot of detail in there. We just started to share that with the players. Today was the first time we had the whole group together.” – Ruud van Nistelrooy

Van Nistelrooy says he likes to play with a back four, two number sixes and a “three-box-three” which has similarities to how both Enzo Maresca and Steve Cooper played, in as much as the back four become a back three when in possession. 

The two defensive midfielders, one of whom was an inverted full-back under Maresca, form the base of the midfield box, while two attacking midfielders form the top of the box behind the three up front.

The indications are then that van Nistelrooy wants to build on the system that proved so effective in getting Leicester promoted under Maresca, but work needs to be done on their defensive 4-4-2 shape when out of possession.

VAN NISTELROOY’S FIRST MATCH IN CHARGE

We’ve already covered Leicester’s win over West Ham in our Scout Notes.

In a nutshell, it was spirited and the Foxes looked good on the break especially. There were few shots, just eight, but seven of those were Opta-defined ‘big chances’. Quality over quantity.

There was plenty of luck ridden along the way, however. West Ham’s total of 31 shots was the most they’ve ever had in a game.

The visitors had the upper hand on xG, unsurprisingly:

Tactically, we saw a sort of 4-2-3-1, with the wingers tucked infield and the two ‘sixes’ sticking to the back four. The three attacking midfielders all swapped positions at half-time, while the width came from full-back Victor Kristiansen (£4.5m) in the first half especially.

Van Nistelrooy acknowledged that Leicester had got lucky but hailed the spirit as a good starting point.

“On a long, long-term basis we know that the performances need to get better but I think the spirit and and how we want to do things, today we saw the first glimpses of it.” – Ruud van Nistelrooy

RUUD VAN NISTELROOY: THE FPL PROSPECTS

Leicester are lying 15th in the Premier League with 13 points from 14 matches, four points above the relegation zone.

They have scored 19 goals from 15.10 expected goals (xG), with their +3.90 overperformance the fourth-highest in the Premier League.

On the plus side, they are scoring more goals than they are expected to and they have failed to score only once all season – in that 3-0 defeat by Man Utd. 

The problem – and it is a major one – is they are not creating nearly enough chances. They have had the fewest shots on target of any Premier League team, so if and when their overperformance in attack regresses to the mean they will be in a world of trouble – especially when you take a closer look at what is happening at the other end of the pitch.

*Above ranks are adjusted per game to allow for the fact that Leicester have played one fixture more than 16 others

If Leicester’s fate was dependent purely on their defending, they would be firmly in the relegation zone. They are joint-last for clean sheets, have conceded the most shots in the box, the second-most goals, the second-most big chances and the second-most shots overall.

It highlights the mammoth challenge that van Nistelrooy has taken on at King Power.

The forthcoming schedule is a mixed bag. Home games against Wolves, Palace and Fulham are to come in the next eight Gameweeks.

But there also clashes with Liverpool, Man City, Brighton (all in the top five), Newcastle and Aston Villa. The Foxes will be hoping that City, Newcastle and Villa are still in their current slumps by then.

The majority of FPL managers might want to hold fire on swooping for their assets, then.

That said, there two are players who have been performing in spite of their side’s shortcomings. Jamie Vardy (£5.5m), the very man who beat van Nistelrooy’s own goal record by scoring in 11 consecutive Premier League matches nine years ago, is still producing attacking returns. He has blanked only once in the last six appearances.

Almost as attractive is Facundo Buonanotte (£5.0m) who is a very interesting bargain midfielder, who could fill in a Morgan Rogers (£5.3m)-sized hole in your team. The immensely talented Argentinian has returned in six out of 11 appearances and was on target again in Gameweek 13 with van Nistelrooy looking on.

If van Nistelrooy deploys Buonanotte as he did Bruno Fernandes at United – and he did that in the first half on Tuesday -then there could be exciting differential rewards to reap. He has had the most shots of any Leicester player this season, with 22, and is the club’s second-top scorer with four. He is owned by a meagre 1.5% managers.

Wout Faes (£4.1m) might be off the menu, however. He was benched in midweek, with the even-cheaper Conor Coady (£4.0m) and Jannik Vestergaard (£4.0m) starting at centre-half instead.

It remains to be seen how successful an appointment van Nistelrooy will be as he is still a relatively inexperienced coach. 

By all accounts, he is someone who earns immediate respect from his charges due to his achievements as a player. Diligent, detail-oriented and approachable around the training ground, he is an interesting appointment.

It is a small sample size but for the short time he was at both at PSV and at Manchester United he was able to enthuse his teams into playing with freedom and verve. Perhaps those years of experience working under some of the game’s most inspirational and astute tacticians will serve him in good stead. Only time will tell.

Leicester will represent a Herculean first permanent Premier League challenge and from an FPL perspective the attractiveness of their assets are for now at least clearly limited. But if he can tighten things up at the back and bring the best out of Vardy and Buonanotte, then there could be some bargain deals worth chancing.

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