The Fosse Way predicts Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first Leicester City lineup
Tonight’s 7pm announcement of the Leicester City lineup to face West Ham United in Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first game in charge of the Foxes will represent the most eagerly anticipated team news in recent history.
A combination of a new manager, a woeful display last time out and a raft of injuries to key players is what makes it so intriguing.
There are decisions to make all over the pitch and it was particularly interesting to ponder van Nistelrooy’s thoughts as he sat in the stands at Brentford and watched a disastrous performance unfold.
With such a tight turnaround, the new man won’t have had time to drill all of his philosophy into the players. But at his first press conference as manager, he did clearly explain his tactical ideas and the shift from what we saw on Saturday back to a setup much more like the one favoured by Enzo Maresca will be fascinating to follow.
We asked our writers to predict van Nistelrooy’s first Foxes. The jury of nine was David Bevan, Charlie Carmichael, Harry Gregory, James Knight, Becky Taylor, Helen Thompson, Jamie Thorpe, Wilby Toothill and Iain Wright.
In goal
One of very few untouchables, Mads Hermansen is the first name on the teamsheet in more ways than one. Frankly, he looks hacked off with the way the season has gone so far. In that sense, he is reminiscent of another Danish stopper of recent times.
At Brentford he made one superb save but to still concede four goals through no fault of his own must be galling. On a personal level he’s getting plenty of airtime to showcase his quality. Hopefully he has less to do tonight.
Right-back
Options are limited. James Justin’s struggles this season - whether down to lack of form, a lack of support or a combination of the two - make it very difficult to advocate for him to start.
Just two of our writers think van Nistelrooy will persevere with Justin at right-back with six predicting a call for Hamza Choudhury. This switch would make sense against a physical Hammers side known for their counter attack.
It would also tally with van Nistelrooy’s press conference yesterday in which he spoke about his preference for the three-box-three in possession, something Enzo Maresca coached Choudhury to play in as the inverted right-back.
There was one protest vote to retain alliteration and ask Filbert Fox to fill in for JJ.
Centre-back
Jannik Vestergaard is the number one Premier League pick at centre-back. You wouldn’t have predicted that two or three years ago any more than you would have predicted Ruud van Nistelrooy would be our manager.
Eight out of nine went for big Jannik at the back, with another protest vote here suggesting “the bloke what plays the post horn” should stick around on the pitch after his pre-match duties to line up alongside Caleb Okoli.
It’s still not 100% clear whether Okoli will be fit but the majority think van Nistelrooy will pick him. Wout Faes retained a few votes despite falling into the same unpickable category as James Justin for many.
Nobody thinks Conor Coady will make the starting lineup, which is damning given his reputation as a leader but then there isn’t much room for a lack of pace if you’re already picking Vestergaard.
Left-back
A couple of people think Luke Thomas will keep his place. Thomas wasn’t dreadful on Saturday, particularly by his recent standards, but it’s hard to know why he was picked ahead of Victor Kristiansen and the vast majority think it’ll be back to VK tonight.
What will the three-box-three mean for Kristiansen and Thomas? It all depends whether van Nistelrooy thinks Thomas can play at Premier League level. If so, the inverted role is more suited to him, as he lacks the physical presence to tuck in as a third centre-back but can count distribution as one of his better qualities.
As for Kristiansen, the jury is still out on his own ability to cope with the Premier League but he has only been managed at Leicester by a late-era Brendan Rodgers, Dean Smith and Steve Cooper. Thiago Motta got a tune out of him at Bologna so perhaps van Nistelrooy can do similar.
In midfield
Two clear winners here - both unsurprising for very different reasons. Oliver Skipp beat Boubakary Soumare to one spot by 7 votes to 2, while Wilfred Ndidi made it into 8 of the sides.
Skipp’s energy was sorely lacking at Brentford. Ndidi’s height at defensive set pieces is one of the last remaining reasons to pick him and West Ham are still the kind of team you have to match up to physically.
The final protest vote saw Skipp partnered in the middle by “the old stadium announcer”, who received only one vote fewer than Soumare.
In the creative midfield role there were six shouts for Bilal El Khannouss, two for Jordan Ayew and one optimistic soul who thinks Ruud will go where others have feared to tread and put his faith in Will Alves.
It feels like El Khannouss, scorer of the first goal conceded by van Nistelrooy’s Manchester United, could be one of the main beneficiaries of this appointment. It was bizarre that he got no minutes at Brentford after impressing many against Chelsea. And Leicester need to add creativity.
The forwards
From everything we know about van Nistelrooy and what he has said since his appointment, Leicester fans must expect a more attacking approach. The twin wide threat of Stephy Mavididi and Abdul Fatawu would surely have appealed just as much to him as it did to Maresca and Fatawu’s unavailability is a huge blow.
Facundo Buonanotte is the first outfield name on the teamsheet each week for his ability on the ball and tenacity off it. Whether he has the pace to get up and down the wing to help out his full-back when selected out wide is questionable though and van Nistelrooy may prefer his creativity and pressing centrally.
So it’s almost a clean sweep. A full nine out of nine for both Buonanotte and Mavididi. Eight predict van Nistelrooy will swiftly put the past behind him and select his own record-breaking Jamie Vardy. One brave lone voice suggests Patson Daka will start.
Predicted lineup
Mads Hermansen
Hamza Choudhury
Jannik Vestergaard
Caleb Okoli
Victor Kristiansen
Oliver Skipp
Wilfred Ndidi
Bilal El Khannouss
Facundo Buonanotte
Stephy Mavididi
Jamie Vardy
What is it about Ruud van Nistelrooy that Leicester City’s decision-makers think will help keep the club in the Premier League? It’s a question many in the media have been trying to answer in the past week.