Leicester City hit a new low on Friday night, suffering an embarrassing defeat against Brentford and surely raising serious doubts over Ruud van Nistelrooy’s future.
It’s been an incredibly difficult time for Van Nistelrooy at Leicester City, becoming the first manager in Premier League history to lose six home matches in a row by at least two goals without scoring in any game.
The Dutchman set this unwanted record after Leicester were beaten 4-0 by Brentford thanks to first-half strikes from Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard while Fabio Carvalho added a fourth in the second.
Some inexcusable defending and failing to do the basics allowed those goals to happen, which will have angered Van Nistelrooy, who has now lost 11 of his 14 league games in charge of the Foxes.
Unfortunately, the initial excitement surrounding his appointment has now eroded, with the fans sending a clear message to the owners after this embarrassing defeat.
Leicester City fans want Ruud van Nistelrooy to be sacked after Brentford defeat
When Van Nistelrooy replaced Steve Cooper in November, some fans perhaps expected their side to pull away from danger.
Sadly, the opposite has transpired, with Van Nistelrooy statistically doing worse than Cooper, and the fans have seen enough.
Most walked out of the King Power Stadium on the half-hour mark once the third goal went in while others took to X, formerly Twitter, to demand their manager gets sacked.
“Ruud Out never wanted him never liked him so much for the new messiah when he came in,” one fan wrote.
“A manager so out of his depth. Ruud out!!!!!!” another exclaimed while a third replied: “Ruud OUT.”
One fan even suggested that Sean Dyche should replace Van Nistelrooy after the Englishman was recently sacked by Everton.
“I’ve seen enough,” they wrote. “Ruud out. Get Dyche in until the end of the season! The players have to take a lot of the blame, but this futuristic football isn’t working. We’re dog meat.
“He’s got to go. Problem is, the man sacking him needs to be sacked too,” a sixth directed his frustrations at the Leicester owners.
“I reckon he gets sacked before Thursday you know,” another predicted.
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What the Leicester City owners have said about sacking Van Nistelrooy
It seems inevitable that Leicester will be relegated if they keep Van Nistelrooy in charge for the remaining 12 games. Truthfully, replacing him with Cooper has backfired.
The overriding feeling is that the former Manchester United striker needs to be axed from his role at the King Power but that would require the owners pulling the trigger, and that doesn’t seem likely judging by their previous comments.
When he was given the job in November, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha said Van Nistelrooy wouldn’t be sacked, regardless of what happens for the rest of the campaign.
This is purely because paying off another manager would put further strain on them financially along with Leicester’s PSR issues.
It remains to be seen whether that stance has changed after watching just two wins in 14 league matches but, it’s become clear sacking Van Nistelrooy is their best chance of staying up.