Julius OkorieLeicester City’s relegation appears have been signed and delivered, after losing 2-0 to West Ham at the London Stadium on Thursday.
Van Nistelrooy was looking for a response from his side from their 4-0 defeat at the hands of Brentford last time, but what he got was a lacklustre performance as they crashed to an 11th league defeat in 12 to stay rooted in the bottom three.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelWest Ham, who followed up victory at Arsenal at the weekend with another three points, didn’t get out of first gear. They didn’t need to as the foxes posed no resistance.
They went ahead when Aaron Cresswell’s powerful strike was followed in by Mohammed Kudus, who saw his effort saved superbly by Mads Hermansen, but Tomas Soucek was alert to poke home the second rebound.
The defending left plenty to be desired and again they were undone just before the break. Jamie Vardy failed to deal with a corner at the near post before the ball fell kindly for Jarrod Bowen, who squeezed the ball home from the tightest of angles via a deflection off Jannick Vestergaard.
Leicester had a brief 10 minutes where they finally showed some urgency after Harry Winks and Stephy Mavididi were introduced, but it was all too brief from a Leicester point of view.
The win sees West Ham move 16 points ahead of the relegation zone, but Leicester remain in deep trouble. They remain five points behind 17th-placed Wolves with 11 games remaining.
In his 14 games in charge at Leicester, Van Nistelrooy has picked up just seven points, three fewer than previous Foxes boss Steve Cooper managed this season with 10 in 12 games. Ironically it does not look like there is a soft landing in terms of victory for the Foxes looking at their fortth coming next six games.
They have Chelsea, Manchester City, Brighton away, Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool at home. None of the ties looks like easy ride for the van Nistelrooy men.
READ ALSO:Relegation Battle: Brentford Compounds Leicester City’s Woes
Van Nistelrooy was critical of his side’s first-half performance in east London but vowed to keep fighting right until the end in Leicester’s bid to escape the drop.
“The difference between the first and second half [was big],” he said. “The whole first half we were going back instead of putting our opponents under pressure.
“We don’t have too many results. Also in bottom three. We were too passive and too secure in our defensive organisation. We didn’t press the opponent at all. The backline was too deep, the midfield too.
“The second half you have a totally different game but you’ve conceded two.
“Nothing at all [changed tactically at half-time
“When you are passive and hope the opponent doesn’t score, you call it upon yourself. The easy goals we conceded are a part of it.
“We are still in this fight. We’re mathematically there. We will keep fighting as long as we can.
“It must be clear the fight was only one half today and that’s not enough.”
Nigeria international and Leicester City defender Wilfred Ndidi got a six out of 10 rating in the encounter.
Victory saw West Ham win consecutive Premier League games for the first time since February/March 2024, courtesy of wins against Brentford and Everton.
It is also the first time they have won at the London Stadium without conceding for the first time since December 2023 against Manchester United.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
