Leicester City Manager Van Nistelrooy Urges Team To Take Initiative Amidst Premier League Struggles

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Ruud van Nistelrooy acknowledged the mounting pressure on Leicester City as they strive to remain in the Premier League. Currently positioned 19th, they are five points away from safety after a lacklustre 2-0 loss to West Ham. The Foxes struggled at the London Stadium, managing only 0.38 expected goals and two shots on target.

Tomas Soucek opened the scoring, followed by Jannik Vestergaard's own goal, sealing Leicester's fate. The team has now lost 11 of their last 12 league matches. Opta's supercomputer gives them just a 2.4% chance of avoiding relegation. Van Nistelrooy has secured only seven points in his 14 games, three fewer than Steve Cooper achieved earlier this season.

"We are in a situation where we are not winning games and we are in a situation where we are in the bottom three," Van Nistelrooy stated, according to the Premier League's official website. "The pressure is on." He emphasised the need for his team to take initiative and not wait passively during matches.

Despite winning 54.4% of their duels, Leicester was outperformed by West Ham, who celebrated consecutive league victories for the first time since March last year. Graham Potter expressed his satisfaction with the team's performance: "Not fantastic, but we are delighted with two wins, two clean sheets and six points."

Soucek celebrated his 30th birthday with a goal, becoming only the second player in Premier League history to score on his birthday in two different years. "It's a great birthday—it's a big one," he said. "I wanted to win and with a goal it's even better."

Van Nistelrooy's Call for Action

Van Nistelrooy highlighted that conceding easy goals reflected their first-half performance. He noted that while they improved in pressing and urgency after halftime, they initially waited too much. "We have to put the opponent under pressure in the right way," he insisted.

The recent performances have shown good spirit and football quality according to Soucek: "In the last two games we've showed good spirit, good football and we hope that can help show the manager we believe in what he's doing." This sentiment reflects West Ham’s determination to build on their recent success.