Ninety-eight seconds. That was all that was required for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester City reign to get up and running. Jamie Vardy’s opener offered an early snapshot of Leicester in Van Nistelrooy’s image, too. Victor Kristiansen, hugging the left touchline, squared the ball to Bilal El Khannouss, who freed Leicester’s No 9, head down, open for business in the left channel. Vardy, wearing garish pink boots, stroked a timeless right-foot finish into the far corner.
After a VAR check, he clinked into celebration mode, chuntering towards the away fans giving him grief. Even before Patson Daka made it 3-0 with stoppage time looming, the same supporters switched their attention to their manager. “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” came the chant. Julen Lopetegui, ashen-faced at the final whistle, will do well to survive this grisly defeat. Lopetegui combed his hand through his hair, his whirring mind in overdrive, under pressure. Welcome back to the brutal world of frontline management, Ruud.
Van Nistelrooy is back on the train, as he put it, this unforgiving hamster wheel. For most of this game he hogged the edge of the home technical area, quietly observing, rarely more than a few feet from Lopetegui, though the pair could hardly be in different spots. One is upbeat about reigniting his coaching career in the dugout, the other clinging to his job after another damaging defeat.
West Ham have been sounding out successors in case they decide to press the reset button. Van Nistelrooy may even have had a whiff of the job had he still been out of work. When in interim charge of Manchester United, after the draw against Chelsea at Old Trafford last month, the Dutchman quizzed Enzo Maresca, who led Leicester to the Championship title last season, about the health and structure of the club, with a view to replacing Steve Cooper.
Now Van Nistelrooy is Leicester’s king. He applauded all four sides of the ground in the seconds before kick-off and sections of the home support were giddily chanting his name inside 10 minutes, moments after Lukasz Fabianski diverted another Vardy effort, from another Kristiansen pass, into the side netting.
In some ways, Leicester have reverted to type. Van Nistelrooy’s side were generally 4-4-2 out of possession, Facundo Buonanotte tag-teaming with Vardy in front of two banks of four, and with the ball they slipped into a 3-4-3, with a box in midfield. “It is something that was very well developed here when Enzo came in; obviously in the Championship, the team was a lot more dominant,” Van Nistelrooy said. “I saw that as an advantage coming here.”
The scoreline flattered Leicester, who could feasibly have trailed 6-1 at half-time. They may have changed managers but Mads Hermansen has been a constant since arriving from Brøndby last year, the goalkeeper proving an inspired signing; only Mark Flekken has made more saves in the top flight this season.
Hermansen made two superb stops from Jarrod Bowen in the first half and tipped an awkward, looping Mohammed Kudus effort over the bar early in the second. Danny Ings dropped a header against a post, Carlos Soler and Tomas Soucek went close. Two minutes before El Khannouss gave Leicester some breathing space, Hermansen was fortunate a bump from Soucek was enough for the officials to award a foul and not a West Ham goal.
Just as well, then, Van Nistelrooy had focused on defensive unit work in his first training session with his entire squad 24 hours earlier. West Ham ended with 31 shots, 10 on target. Conor Coady prevented Crysencio Summerville pulling a goal back, clearing the ball on the line with his big toe. “Taking over at United, it was similar,” the Leicester manager said. “In our first game, against Leicester [United won 5-2], we showed energy, commitment, fight … it lifted the crowd. When you get that connection behind you, it drives your performance.”
Between jobs at PSV Eindhoven and United, Van Nistelrooy spent time in Argentina and Spain, visiting Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid’s headquarters in Valdebebas. So palatial and plush are the facilities at Leicester’s Seagrave training base north of the city, Van Nistelrooy said if they changed the logos around the place it could easily be mistaken as the home of the La Liga side.
This time last year Van Nistelrooy spent 10 days shadowing Ancelotti, the master of quiet leadership. Van Nistelrooy clenched his fists when El Khannouss doubled Leicester’s lead, but everything was controlled. At the final whistle he did not linger on the pitch to absorb praise despite making a dream start to a new era. Lopetegui, head bowed, hands locked in his pockets, did not bother to stray anywhere near the travelling supporters. He knows his time could be up.
