Ruud van Nistelrooy, Manager of Leicester City,
Ruud van Nistelrooy hired a former Manchester United coach at Leicester
Ruud van Nistelrooy believes that Manchester United's loss has been Leicester City's gain in terms of the coaching changes that ensued following Ruben Amorim's appointment at Old Trafford. Van Nistelrooy, who served as interim manager after Erik ten Hag's departure and before Amorim took over, found himself without a role once the new Portuguese manager arrived with his team from Sporting Lisbon.
Shortly thereafter, Van Nistelrooy took charge of the Foxes, succeeding Steve Cooper, and began assembling his own backroom staff.
Amorim's arrival at United brought with him Carlos Fernandes, Jorge Vital, Adelio Candido, Emanuel Ferro, and Paulo Barreira from Sporting, leading to the exit of Van Nistelrooy along with his Dutch colleagues Rene Hake, Jelle ten Rouwelaar, and Pieter Morel.
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Van Nistelrooy holds high regard for Ten Rouwelaar, who had stints at Anderlecht and Burnley before joining United earlier in the year as a goalkeeping coach. Now at Leicester, Ten Rouwelaar has been promoted to act as both Van Nistelrooy's assistant and goalkeeping coach.
During his time at Carrington, Ten Rouwelaar played a significant role in enhancing Andre Onana's abilities, and Van Nistelrooy is confident he can do the same for Leicester's goalkeeper Mads Hermansen. The Leicester manager praised Hermansen's performance this season, noting his numerous saves and expressing a desire to reduce them, while commending his shot-stopping and all-round ability, reports the Mirror.
Van Nistelrooy remarked: "He's having a very good season overall. He makes a lot of saves, we're trying to reduce that amount. Mads is all round. He's a good shot-stopper, excellent footballer.
"He (Ten Rouwelaar) will make Mads better for sure. He's worked with young talented goalkeepers and made them improve into the highest level. [Bart] Verbruggen is one of course, who he worked with at Anderlecht. He worked with Onana at United and I think he was in the best form of his life in the months he worked with Jelle.
"He's a fantastic addition to the team. He's not only improving the goalkeepers and playing out, but the players around the keeper to do better. Of course you need everyone to be involved in playing out from the back and that whole process he's great at."
United now have Vital as their goalkeeping coach under Amorim's guidance. While many of Amorim's coaching staff are young, Vital is an outlier at 65 years old.
He is a former professional goalkeeper of 20 years and has worked with Amorim at Braga and Sporting previously.
Van Nistelrooy made a promising start to life at Leicester, overseeing a crucial 3-1 win over West Ham in his first game before a 2-2 draw against Brighton. But his side were thrashed 4-0 by Newcastle on Saturday, with Hermansen forced off with an injury, leaving Danny Ward to deputise.