Van Nistelrooy will be axed, Vestergaard is woeful and more – five things learned from West Ham vs Leicester

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Leicester City were in dire need of a win when they travelled to the London Stadium to take on West Ham United.

It has been a tough few months for Ruud van Nistelrooy and his Leicester City players in the Premier League.

A shock win over Tottenham Hotspur did little to mask the glaring problems at the King Power Stadium that are sure to see the Foxes relegated.

Prior to taking on West Ham United, Leicester sat 19th in the table and five points from 17th-place Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A very tough run of fixtures is now set to begin in March, and as a result, it was crucial the Midlands outfit secured a win on Thursday.

When all was said and done at the London Stadium, Leicester lost to West Ham.

Here are five things we learned from the Foxes’ midweek Premier League meeting with the Hammers.

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Facundo Buonanotte finally given a chance

Leicester fans were in awe of Facundo Buonanotte when he came off the bench in the dismal showing versus Brentford last Friday.

The Argentine looked head and shoulders above all of his teammates, but despite impressing as a substitute, and prior to Van Nistelrooy’s arrival, the attacking midfielder had not started a game since January 18th before Thursday.

However, much to the delight of the Leicester faithful, the 20-year-old was given a very rare start against West Ham.

Buonanotte was a shadow of the player we saw against Brentford, however, failing to create anything of note and link up with Jamie Vardy.

Woyo Coulibaly missed out for Leicester vs West Ham

Woyo Coulibaly has been superb during his limited minutes since arriving from Parma in January.

Coulibaly excelled against Arsenal when brought on,n and while his performance was overshadowed by the horrible result against Brentford, he showed promise in that tie as well.

However, the right-back was completely omitted from the matchday squad when Leicester faced West Ham.

James Justin instead returned on the right of the Foxes’ back four, likely meaning Coulibaly has picked up a knock.

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Relegation is confirmed; call the season off now

It’s still mathematically possible for Leicester to stay up, but it’s hard to believe any fans actually think that will still happen.

They wasted their game-in-hand on Wolves, and a case could be made that it was actually a worse 90 minutes than we saw against Brentford, whom they at least tried to attack.

Leicester’s defence is a mess, there is no game plan except to launch the ball up to Jamie Vardy, which doesn’t work, and as already mentioned, they now face a very tough run of games against some big teams.

Starting Jannik Vestergaard was a mistake

Conceding goals has obviously been a massive issue for Leicetser this term, and after shipping more on Thursday, they remain without a clean sheet in 14 games under Van Nistelrooy.

It’s obviously an issue the Dutchman must solve, but opting to drop Caleb Okoli for Jannik Vestergaard was not the way to do it.

The Dane has shown very little to warrant a return to the side and was once again woeful against West Ham.

Vestergaard looked sluggish, and his inability to hold his line was one of the main reasons for the opening goal. He’ll likely be dropped for Leicester’s next fixture, but the damage is already done.

Ruud van Nistelrooy has to go

After West Ham, the view that sacking Steve Cooper was a mistake is looking more and more justified.

At least under the Englishman, there was a small chance Leicester might actually look half-decent and score.

But now the goals have dried up, there are still no clean sheets, and the number of points won under Ruud is alarmingly low.

There’s no saving this group of players even if Van Nistelrooy does go, but it’s now clear his appointment was a total disaster, and if there is still a slim chance of staying up, he has to go.