Leicester City’s “heart and spirit” left manager Ruud van Nistelrooy convinced his side can “change their momentum” despite suffering a 12th defeat in 13 Premier League games.
City went down 1-0 at Chelsea on Sunday as their losing and goalless run extended to five fixtures, with the gap to Premier League safety at the bottom of the table now standing at six points.
But van Nistelrooy was pleased with the fight his City players showed at Stamford Bridge, and felt they deserved to come away from Stamford Bridge with a result.
He was also optimistic over the impact of his newly-introduced five-at-the-back system, picking out Luke Thomas, one of the three players he brought into the line-up, for special praise.
“The lads deserved more,” van Nistelrooy said in his post-match press conference. “The performance today was really good, with a lot of heart and a lot of spirit.
“A new system, on and off the ball, with some excellent performances within that. To name one, Luke Thomas, how well he played today in that role.
“It was to create more defensive stability, with the amount of goals against a worry. Also, with more people in and around Jamie (Vardy) up front to give him that support. I think that also worked well.
“Mads (Hermansen) saved a great penalty and then there was the ball on the crossbar and then the rebound that just didn’t fall for Jamie.
“It can change the momentum for us. The situation that we’re in, we’re not scoring, but the team is spirited and that’s what they showed today.”
Thomas made only his second league start under van Nistelrooy at Chelsea, the academy graduate included on the left side of the three centre-backs, with Victor Kristiansen outside him as a wing-back.
“He showed today how good he was on the ball and in jumping into midfield,” van Nistelrooy said of Thomas.
“He had to defend in midfield against Enzo Fernandez many times, he did really well. He did well when he went to the wing against Jadon Sancho. He did an excellent job.”
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