Leicester City are struggling for goals and struggling to keep themselves in with a chance in the relegation dogfight, but Ruud van Nistlrooy refuses to blame his veteran marksman
Ruud Van Nistelrooy says Jamie Vardy isn’t to blame for Leicester City’s goal shortage.
The Foxes’ chief has absolved the 38-year-old marksman for his side’s failure to find the net.
Leicester City set an unwanted top-flight record against Brentford, becoming the first club in history to go six home games without scoring. They also boast the current lowest xG in the Premier League.
Vardy is going through one of his most barren spells in front of goal – but Van Nistelrooy says he cannot fashion his own chances. And he’s called upon his more creative players to come up with a suitable supply line for the ex-England international.
He said: “We have to make sure we keep creating chances for our attacking players. That is for sure. You can’t give a cross to yourself and score.
“So you have to build it up from the back, or you have to make a good counter-attack, or make a good set-piece to provide chances for your attacking players. That’s a collective thing. I have no doubt in my mind that when those chances are there, he is going to take them.”
Vardy is the Foxes’s top scorer this year with seven Premier League strikes. But he has found the net just once during a streak of one win in 11 matches – which came during the 2-1 victory at Spurs.
He’s already played for more minutes this season than he did throughout the entire campaign with his then boss Enzo Maresca. However, Van Nistelrooy said there was no problem with his forward’s workload.
He added: “There’s no need to manage his minutes. He’s training – and doing everything. He’s competing with all of his team-mates. He’s doing the same work they all do. He’s our captain. He will lead us out. His minutes are no problem.”
Van Nistelrooy described the defeat at West Ham as a game of differing halves. Leicester were abject in the opening 45 minutes and surrendered two goals that ultimately cost them the game.
Without an FA Cup tie, the former Real Madrid forward has enjoyed the best part of two weeks on the training ground.
He added: “You have to take advantage of this time. We’ve had five sessions here to prepare for the game. Every second we have used. You have to recover from a bad result and rise again. This team is capable of doing it.
“We are not the only club in this situation where we have to deal with loss after loss. More teams are doing that around us, so we have to make sure we are ready again.
“We have to put together our game model. We haven’t created as much as we would have wanted. We have looked at our defensive model.
“I watched Chelsea’s game on Thursday. They are in a fight to qualify for the Champions League. It’s a big task for us.”
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