3 Things van Nistelrooy must immediately put right at Leicester | OneFootball

After a strong start to his premiership, the head coach has struggled to resolve key issues which persistently damage the King Power Club's chances during matches. Like a plague, the Foxes become lethargic, sore, and wasteful. It is quite strange to see how a team of this expense and that performed so well in the previous campaign could perform so shallow in the current outing.

For me, what the Dutchman has to look at is where and when Leicester have been most vulnerable. That will indicate at least three elements of the team which must be fixed should the Foxes have any prolonged chance at remaining in the Premier League: a prospect which felt so easy early on in the season.

Leicester City's weaknesses

On the pitch, LCFC's ability to defend has represented the primary concern. Whether that be a loose-handed goalkeeper now already discarded in favour of Jakub Stolarczyk, a loose-footed and panicked right back being undroppable, or even perhaps a general distrust of the defenders preventing more composed passing. These are but a small group of issues at the back.

Ultimately, we can reduce our weaknesses into three areas. First, costly individual mistakes. Second, panicked passing. Third, extremely vulnerable to counterattacks. On the latter point, on the turnover, Leicester City seemingly rush around aimlessly disorganised and incapable of mounting any sort of pressure consistently across a couple of incoming attackers: this has led to goal after goal after giving possession away.

The only real solutions would be the return of one of our best defensive midfielders - Wilfred Ndidi - who can offer an immense amount of coverage over the pitch to apply pressure and disrupt opposition offensive play, or to alter the system to bring more players back quicker. A good way to do this would be to have the winger rush back into a wing-back/fullback position and have the fullbacks create a highly compact back four around the penalty box to help with blocking chances or preventing clear shots.

Regarding individual mistakes, James Justin and Wout Faes have caused problems by making the wrong decisions when under pressure. They pass sometimes too soon or late, sometimes too weakly or strong, and otherwise misplace it altogether. They have come out of position, been too slow to get back into position, or even lacked the sense of danger to occupy dangerous space or pressure midfielders making runs. All of this has forced other players to move to cover, thus leaving other spaces completely unchecked.

The passing has been good leading up to a strangely panicked mess which happens in our own defensive half. Again, passing poorly or at the wrong time has created problems in both retaining the ball and progressing it out of a dangerous position should a turnover occur. We saw this when Justin made a weak pass under pressure towards a forward player when they could have instead just knocked it off the opponent for a throw-in.

Additionally, when on the other end - in the final attacking third - sometimes we have simply seen a pass too early for Jamie Vardy or another forward to get onto a ball, or the opposite where a lack of trust has led to a player holding onto the ball, getting pressured, and either giving the ball away or being forced into recycling possession. We are seeing panicked passing. The exceptions to this come from our midfielders who have shown themselves to be excellent.

Solving these issues requires money and training. Transfers are needed to drop players performing badly, and training will be needed to help those here remain calm under pressure and to prioritise disrupting play should they be unable to command the game. That is where the Foxes have been limp: completely unable to make domination count as they fail to deal with situations where they are not totally in control.