Leicester City are in a world of trouble inside the Premier League’s relegation zone. The Foxes are favourites to go down along with Ipswich Town and Southampton.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side have won just four out of 27 games. On just 17 points, the Foxes remain five points from safety.
It isn’t getting any easier for Van Nistelrooy either. The Leicester City manager will take his side to Stamford Bridge for an away game against Chelsea on Sunday.
And the Dutchman has been warned that if he doesn’t start one Leicester City first team player, he has virtually no chance of keeping the Foxes in the top-flight.
Ruud van Nistelrooy told Conor Coady must start more Leicester City games
Despite being one of the Foxes’ most experienced players, Conor Coady, who is linked with leaving Leicester City, has struggled to get a game under Van Nistelrooy.
The former Wolves captain has started just one league game all year with his most recent appearance being an 11 minute cameo off the bench during the side’s 4-0 thrashing at home to Brentford.
Troy Deeney can’t understand why more faith hasn’t shown in the 32-year-old though.
Speaking to talkSPORT about Van Nistelrooy’s decision to overlook Coady, Deeney said: “England international cannot get a game, in that team. Someone is going to have to explain to me what Ruud is doing to not go: ‘Right, do we have to go five at the back? Do I take one these other guys out and put him in?’
“But if Conor can’t get a game in that, then that to me, fundamentally, I don’t care about anything else, fundamentally if you’re not going to stop goals, you can’t win games.
Co-host Scott Minto added: “They’ve conceded 61 goals in 27 games and they don’t score so a recipe for a disaster is an understatement.
“But you’re right, just do something different because if you keep doing the same thing you’re going to get the same results, and do you know what, even if you do something different, you’re probably going to get the same results, but you don’t know.
Nothing to lose
At this point, with just 11 games left, time is running out, and because of how few people expect the Foxes to stay up, Van Nistelrooy has nothing to lose.
With the writing pretty much on the wall, the former PSV boss is unlikely to be sacked between now and the end of the campaign, so rolling the dice by mixing up his squad is not actually that much of a risk.
And as Deeney and Minto said — there are worse players the 48-year-old could gamble his career’s reputation on than England’s Coady.
Fans will be hoping Van Nistelrooy changes things up, including reintroducing Coady to the starting lineup, when the Foxes take on Chelsea on Sunday.
