We’re coming up to the one month anniversary of Ruud van Nistelrooy taking over as Leicester City manager.
It’s early days but for the most part, Leicester fans have been impressed by the new Foxes boss.
The Dutchman has won one, drawn one and lost one of his three games in charge and faces a huge relegation six-pointer against Wolves on Sunday.
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Leicester have looked marginally better going forward but have also surrendered plenty of shots.
Those shots conceded often turn into set pieces to defend and it’s this area the Foxes must address quickly.
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Leicester City ranked as the worst Premier League side for corner stats
Set pieces have always been a problem – offensively and defensively – and that is sadly backed up by the stats.
No side in the Premier League has conceded more opposition set-pieces (92) than the Foxes and if it wasn’t for Mads Hermansen, they’d have conceded more than five goals from corners or free-kicks.
It’s not much better going forward either, with Southampton the only side to have fewer shots than Leicester from corners. Van Nistelrooy’s side do have the lowest expected goals (3.04) but have scored four times this season, which is a small boost.
Set pieces were Leicester’s downfall in the 2020/21 season, ultimately costing them a Champions League spot and they also played a huge part in the club’s relegation to the Championship.
Ruud van Nistelrooy has focused on Leicester set pieces
The appointment of set-piece coach Andy Hughes was expected to bring a turn around in results, but that hasn’t been evident.
Newcastle scored from a set piece in the 4-0 win last weekend and fed up of seeing his side concede this way, Van Nistelrooy admitted it’s been a key focus.
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He said: “If you look at the goals we conceded, there were three from set-pieces, from a short corner and a free-kick from the side, and a throw-in where we weren’t aware and alert enough. That’s costing you the game.
“We had some good meetings, especially on what cost us the game at Newcastle. Set-pieces was a big part of that, evaluating the phases of the set-pieces and where there is the intention to improve. So we looked at that and also transferred it to the training pitch. I’m expecting to see improvements there.”