Ruud van Nistelrooy says Leicester face ‘huge mountain' to avoid relegation

Independent

21-02-2025

Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy admits his team faces 'a huge mountain to climb' if they are to avoid relegation from the Premier League following a heavy 4-0 defeat to Brentford.
The Foxes became the first team to lose six successive Premier League home games without scoring.
Woyo Coulibaly and Jamie Vardy were denied Leicester's first goal at the King Power Stadium for 75 days by Mark Flekken in the first four minutes and they were made to pay with three strikes in 15 first-half minutes from Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard which prompted some home supporters to head for the exit doors.
The gulf in class between Brentford and relegation strugglers Leicester was evident in the second period but the Bees had to wait until the 89th minute to add a fourth when Fabio Carvalho rolled home from close range.
Brentford's fourth successive win on the road moved them into the top half, while Leicester remain in the bottom three ahead of the weekend's action.
Van Nistelrooy said: 'It's blow after blow after blow, there's a lot of hard work put in without results.
'Some performances you can take some hope from but we have to accept we are in a position now where every week we face a better team.
'You have to look at performing at the maximum of your capabilities, I cannot ask the players to do more than that. With the squad we have it's a huge mountain to climb to stay in this league, that's the reality.
'Today it showed. We are making a couple of mistakes, we didn't perform at our best and Brentford were too big a challenge for us.
'I'm not saying that (they're not good enough) but the expectation, that's not fair. You cannot live up to them. Then you can only do the best you can.'
Leicester suffered a 10th defeat from their last 11 league games but are still only two points adrift of safety.
Asked whether the job was harder than he first thought, the Foxes boss answered: 'It doesn't matter if it is or not. It is as it is.
'I'm working within that situation. I didn't know what it would be like, it's not easy, it's a hard situation and a huge challenge.
'The situation we are in is alarming and the mountain we have to climb is huge.
'We depend on the other teams to lose but we also know that's not going to be forever. It's on us to collect enough points.'
Thomas Frank's side moved to within six points of a guaranteed European place but the Brentford boss is only focusing on one game at a time.
He said: 'We want to aim as high as possible but it's about the next game.
'I have said many times if we can keep players fit we have a really good team and players. As many as possible fit and we will find a way.
'I'm very privileged have a fantastic group of players, they work hard, they like each other, they play for each other.'