Let’s not sugarcoat it: this was Leicester City’s worst performance of the season. That can’t be overlooked just because it was Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first away game in charge.
They were less dangerous in attack than they have been all season, mustering just four shots and forcing stand-in goalkeeper Martin Dubravka into just one save. Defensively, they were carved apart, from open play and from set-pieces. Only against Arsenal did they concede more good chances.
There were fewer redeeming moments and individual performances here than in any other fixture this season. There were perhaps five minutes where City played well, at the end of the first half. Otherwise, it was total Newcastle domination.
Van Nistelrooy knew as much and wrapped the game up himself after an hour. Moments after making a triple sub, the City boss watched his side concede a fourth. The hand signals and head shakes from the touchline afterwards suggested he was telling his players to calm down, be compact and simply avoid the goal difference becoming any worse. They didn’t have a touch in Newcastle’s box, never mind a shot, after that point.
So it was a chastening first loss in charge for van Nistelrooy. But it will provide more lessons than the previous week’s good results against West Ham and Brighton. The manager said himself: “From defeat, you’re always going to learn more.”
Van Nistelrooy’s experience as a manager before City had been with one of the better squads in a league. This would have been eye-opening for the Dutchman as to what can happen when one of the weaker squads is missing a handful of starters and performs poorly. Even against an out-of-form mid-table side, you can be utterly dismantled.
It will be interesting to see how the lessons learned affect City going forward. Becoming more compact in defence may only make the attack more toothless. Trying to make the attack more threatening may only open the defence to a greater degree. The limitations of the squad have to be considered too.
A change in manager was not going to solve all of City’s issues in one fell swoop. Keeping this club in the Premier League is a difficult task, which van Nistelrooy, if he didn’t before, will now know.
Van Nistelrooy reaction to McAteer shows where problem lies
The manager is not one for hiding from the truth. His post-match assessment included the succinct summary: “We defended bad.”
The alarming number of chances Newcastle created was especially disappointing and confounding given the improvements City had made at the back against Brighton. But against the Seagulls, City kept the ball better, and that seems to be key.
At Newcastle, City had just 41 per cent of the possession, down from 56 per cent against Brighton the weekend before. Keeping the ball doesn’t have to be decisive in the result, but if City let their opponents have a good majority, their defensive structures and off-the-ball work will be tested more often. Right now, they are better at the back when they avoid the issue of defending entirely.
So their pass completion rate needs to be good. It wasn’t. In fact, for passes of more than 15 yards, they had their lowest completion rate of the season.
The instinct is perhaps to criticise those playing the passes for not being accurate enough, but van Nistelrooy’s expressions in the technical area told another story. There was one moment during the first half where City’s defence opened up the space for Mads Hermansen to pick out Kasey McAteer. But the winger wasn’t quick enough or alert enough to drop into the space and receive the ball, with Lewis Hall sharper to it, pinching possession and starting another Newcastle attack.
Van Nistelrooy stood with his arms outstretched for a good five seconds, as if to ask why McAteer wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He was the only guilty party. Jamie Vardy and Stephy Mavididi didn’t show well enough for the ball either, the latter receiving encouragement that bordered on a telling off from the manager in the second half.
The plan with those passes is to get City up the pitch more quickly and to beat Newcastle’s lines of defence more efficiently. They are high risk, high reward. Very few came off and it only led to more and more attacks for the home side.
Back-up midfielders no comparison as transfer fee so far unjustified
Against West Ham, when City had a comparative level of possession, deep midfield duo Wilfred Ndidi and Boubakary Soumare made a combined 15 tackles and interceptions. At St James’ Park, Oliver Skipp and Hamza Choudhury made three.
Without either of van Nistelrooy’s first-choice midfield duo, City’s defence didn’t have the protection it needed. The back-ups weren’t up to scratch.
There was no lack of effort, but Hamza Choudhury was off the pace. That’s understandable, as he hadn’t played a single minute since September, but it meant he had very little impact on the game.
For Skipp, it was always going to take more than a few appearances for his £20m price-tag to be justified, but at the moment there’s a lack of evidence for why City spent so much on him. His scampering has had a positive impact in a few matches, but he can’t physically dominate like Ndidi and Soumare can, and he can’t manipulate the tempo like Harry Winks, meaning City often lack control when he’s on the pitch.
Soumare will be back for Wolves next weekend and van Nistelrooy will be hoping Ndidi is too. The deputies at Newcastle did not do anything to challenge the pecking order.
Cooper transfer success must be on standby
“There’s no need to jump to conclusions,” van Nistelrooy said when asked if Hermansen’s injury would see City turn to the transfer market. Without knowing how long his groin injury will sideline him for, no decision can be made.
But if the Dane is out for a considerable part of the remainder of the season, then maybe it does need to change their plans. Hermansen’s quality in shot-stopping and in possession felt integral to their survival.
While it would be unfair to pin the blame on Danny Ward for the three goals he conceded in his first 15 minutes of league football for 21 months as there was some woeful defending by City, it did feel ominous. Two seasons ago, when City were relegated, it felt like Ward struggled to deal with the pressure of being the club’s number one and that led to a nervousness in the side and in the stands.
If players, subconsciously or not, don’t trust their goalkeeper to bail them out, they are less likely to take on riskier passes, and so blunting the attack, while also knowing that mistakes are more likely to be punished only means more are made. The nerves in the stand may get to the players too.
There would be none of that with Hermansen. He is City’s best player. But unfortunately for Ward, his reputation from the relegation campaign precedes him. It will have an impact on fan confidence, which may affect the team’s performance.
Jakub Stolarczyk, last season’s back-up, broke his foot in the summer and is not yet available. However, he is training on the grass again and it will be interesting to see if he takes over from Ward should Hermansen’s injury be a long-term one.
But equally, maybe City would need to dip into the transfer market instead. It worked for Steve Cooper, Nottingham Forest a couple of seasons ago when, after Dean Henderson’s injury, they loaned in Keylor Navas. Their fans were begging for his return once his short spell had concluded with him helping to seal their survival.
Maybe Hermansen will be fine and this is all hypothetical. That would be the ideal scenario. But if he’s out for months rather than weeks, then City have to at least consider a January signing.
The good news: it's not as important as next week
The defeat felt damaging for a number of reasons. As the heaviest loss of the campaign, City’s goal difference is now the third worst in the division. Plus, the victories for Ipswich and Crystal Palace mean City have fallen to 17th and sit just two points above the relegation zone.
However, it could have been worse. They could have been losing to a relegation rival. Those are the games they can’t afford to lose.
So far, they haven’t. In matches against the other sides in the bottom seven, they are unbeaten and they’re the only side down there that can say that. To stay up, they need to beat the teams around them. They have a chance to do that – against crisis club Wolves – next weekend, and in doing so can put the Newcastle loss behind them.
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