Ruud van Nistelrooy warns Man Utd ahead of FA Cup tie | OneFootball

Ruud van Nistelrooy says he knows Manchester United's squad "inside out" and can instead focus on getting his Leicester City players ready for the trip to Old Trafford in the FA Cup fourth round.

The Dutchman was part of Erik ten Hag's coaching staff at United and took over as caretaker boss when the Red Devils parted company with the former FA Cup and Carabao Cup winner after a timid start to the 2024/25 season.

Ironically, two of Van Nistelrooy's matches in charge were against his current employers Leicester. The first resulted in a 5-2 Carabao Cup fourth-round drubbing, with the latter a comfortable 3-0 win in the Premier League.

After leaving United following Ruben Amorim's appointment, Van Nistelrooy succeeded Steve Cooper at Leicester, where he hasn't found the going quite as easy. From 12 games played, the Foxes have won just three times and have lost eight - a period of form that includes seven successive Premier League defeats.

Van Nistelrooy is now ready to take on United in the FA Cup fourth round, where he told his pre-match press conference the good thing about taking on his former employers.

Ruud van Nistelrooy has won three home games in 11 days for Man Utd this season; Ruben Amorim boasts just four Old Trafford victories in two months / Carl Recine/GettyImages

"I'm glad I don't have to analyse the Manchester United squad, I'll leave that to Ruben [Amorim]," he said. "We have prepared for them and I know the squad inside out.

"It's special to go back there. I have history as a player, as an assistant, as a caretaker. My focus is on my players and my team, to get the best out of them and to show what we’re about, in the fight and in the spirit."

Van Nistelrooy also addressed Leicester's generally poor form: "We have our own issues. We have to look at us. I don't believe in sequences. You can always win a game after you've lost a couple. We want to represent ourselves in the best way possible.

"It's always welcome [an FA Cup game]. We have time enough to recover and prepare the game. We will do our all to be at our best. It's never a distraction. To be in this competition is a privilege. It's a dream for every player to play there at Manchester United."

Amorim, meanwhile, has been speaking about his decision to bring in a coaching staff he trusted and had worked with before, rather than keeping Van Nistelrooy around and using his experience and knowledge of United.

"It wasn't a difficult situation, because I was very clear about it, I just had to explain it," the former Sporting CP boss said. "He is a football man and he understands this situation. I have my team and my coaching staff. I prefer to work with a team that brought me here. I could keep Ruud because it was something good for me or something popular, but I'm not going to put Ruud ahead of my boys, no matter what happens.

"To show respect to Ruud, I was very clear with him. I explained to him that I have my team and that I will continue like this, and that I'm not going to put a guy like Ruud, a legend of this club, at the bottom of the coaching hierarchy."