Jordan Blackwell, Leicestershire Live: How Foxes have changed under Van Nistelrooy | OneFootball

Jordan Blackwell, Leicester City correspondent for Leicestershire Live, has explained how the Foxes have changed under the guidance of Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Dutch 48-year-old replaced Steve Cooper as manager in late November and was in the stands at Gtech Community Stadium for the previous meeting against Brentford, which the Bees won 4-1.

Leicester are 19th in the Premier League, two points from safety. What have you made of the last few months since the Brentford game at the end of November?

That signalled the start of a change, with Ruud van Nistelrooy taking charge of the following game. And while they have not picked up as many points as they had under Steve Cooper, I do think there have maybe been a few better signs that they could get out of the situation they are in.

I think they have been better between the two boxes since then, probably their finishing has got slightly worse and actually they have probably not been quite as good at actually keeping the ball out of the net, but they have had their first-choice goalkeeper injured for a long time as well.

There has been a few decent signs and I think their best performances of the season have come in the past few months, but also so have their worst performances of the season.

They won at Tottenham, which was a big win, probably the best result they have had this season, they had the game against Brighton where they came back from 2-0 down to get a draw and there have been a couple of games, like at home to Man City, where they played well and did not get a result out of it.

But they have lost 4-0 at Newcastle and Everton, and they were really, really poor in those games. It is a concern they are still having matches like that, where they immediately look like they are not going to get anything out of them. That is where they are at at the minute.

Ruud van Nistelrooy took four points from his first two games, but there have now been nine defeats from the 10 games that have followed. Is he under pressure or will he be given time to turn things around?

I get the impression he will be given the time to see the season out. Certainly at this point, where they are still within touching distance, it feels to me like it is going to be three from the bottom four who go down.

And I would say all of them seem like pretty poor teams in the context of the history of the Premier League, so I do not think the points total to stay up will be particularly high.

I do not see any of the teams pulling away and making it a clear three at the bottom and I think it will go down to the wire, so as long as they stay within touching distance, then I can see Van Nistelrooy staying.

As you said, it seems likely that three of the current bottom four will be relegated. How positive are Leicester about keeping their heads above water?

Because of the good performances they have had, I think internally they probably will be feeling that they can do it.

There are probably a few more doubts among the supporters, but I think they tend to focus on the negatives – and the negatives have been quite prominent with the run of results in some of the games and some of the performances within that run of results.

I think there will be some confidence internally, even though they had a quiet January transfer window; all the other three at the bottom signed at least four players and Leicester only signed one.

But in the past couple of weeks, they have had a first-choice goalkeeper come back – Mads Hermansen – and Wilfred Ndidi has just played his first game in two months, so that is two more starters back in the team and coming at the end of the January transfer window, Van Nistelrooy did describe them as additions.

That is probably giving them a little bit of positivity as well, because during the first few months of the season when they were picking up results under Steve Cooper despite not playing particularly well, a lot of the reason for that was because of Hermansen just making a string of saves.

Having him back is key and I think Ndidi is very, very good as well as he seems to be in really good form this season. Having those two back is giving people a little bit more positivity, I think.

Who has been Leicester's best player over the last few months?

Comfortably, it has been Bilal El Khannouss. He has been really, really good to watch. He is one of those players that does things on the pitch where you think ‘OK, this is a really talented footballer’.

He has really good close control, he plays really confidently, he has got a bit of flair about him, great weight of pass, great vision, and is good at dribbling in tight spaces.

He has really been Leicester's main man since Van Nistelrooy came in and has kind of replaced Facundo Buonanotte in that regard. Buonanotte was the main man under Cooper and scored against Brentford in the away game, but El Khannouss has really taken over.

Van Nistelrooy had wanted to sign him for PSV when he was at Genk, but they felt he was out of their price range.

Certainly they were scouting him and looking quite closely at him, so having that prior knowledge of what he is like has helped. It feels a little bit to me like Leicester's attack is built around him.

Yes, Jamie Vardy is always going to play up front, but the two wingers could change depending on the game and it feels to me that El Khannouss is going to start every game and, if Leicester get him playing well, they have a much, much better chance of winning.

What should Brentford expect in terms of style and shape?

It will be different to the shape and style that Brentford fans saw from Leicester in the away game because there was a caretaker in charge and they went for a back five - and that was the only game this season that they have played that formation!

It will be a 4-2-3-1 shape, I think. What I can definitely say is that, fitness-dependent, it will be Ndidi and Boubakary Soumaré as the two holding midfielders because I think Van Nistelrooy wants the physicality in there.

As I mentioned, El Khannouss and Vardy will definitely play. With the wingers, it could be any two or four depending on what they are feeling on any given day.

In terms of style of play, they do like to get it down and play if they can. Particularly being at home, Leicester will want to do that, so I think they will look to play confidently and try and dominate the ball.

I think that is the only way Van Nistelrooy really feels comfortable with. When they play on the counter, which they do occasionally, I think there is a sense that they would prefer to be having the ball, but the counter is the next best option.

Kevin Schade scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 win at the Gtech in the last meeting. What's your score prediction?

I feel like, for the away game, I did predict Brentford to win, but I am not going to be so negative this time.

The fixture falls in a run of very difficult games for Leicester and I think Brentford, probably on paper, is the most winnable of them - sorry to say that.

They will probably feel they really do have to win, so I will say that Leicester will win 2-1.