Leicester City produced another embarrassing performance on Thursday night as West Ham secured an easy 2-0 victory, piling further pressure onto Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Supporters were put through a painful 90 minutes on Friday night as Leicester lost 4-0 against Brentford, and they hardly showed much improvement at the London Stadium.
Ruud van Nistelrooy set the Foxes up in a defensive shape, but considering they have one of the worst back lines in the league, it was no surprise to see this plan backfire.
Leicester didn’t get close to the Hammers for most of the game, conceding their first inside 21 minutes as Tomas Soucek cashed in on some lacklustre defending before a deflected Jarrod Bowen strike doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time.
Embarrassingly, the visitors only made one final third entry in the first 35 minutes, summarising how bad the Foxes were in the first half.
It didn’t get much better in the second period, either, as Van Nistelrooy bizarrely made no changes at half-time, despite the match looking like man against boys.
So, after another awful performance under the Dutchman, here’s how the players rated.
Leicester City player ratings vs West Ham
Mads Hermansen – 5
Produced a fantastic save to deny Mohammed Kudus from point-blank range, but Tomas Soucek converted the rebound and then could do nothing to deny Jarrod Bowen’s deflected effort.
James Justin – 2
Woyo Coulibaly will wonder what he did to warrant being dropped for James Justin, who returned to the starting lineup after an injury.
Jannik Vestergaard – 0
Another terrible Jannik Vestergaard display. He kept two West Ham players onside for the first goal and didn’t even attempt to block the resulting effort. Miles off Premier League standard and one of the reasons why Leicester are awful defensively.
Wout Faes – 2
Alongside Vestergaard, Wout Faes hardly fared any better and was pretty non-existent with his defensive actions, contesting zero ground and aerial duels in the first half.
Victor Kristiansen – 2
Simply isn’t good enough to play at the top level. Although he tried to contest against Bowen and Aaron Wan-Bissaka down the left, he was often weak with his defending and shocking in possession.
Boubakary Soumare – 2
Soumare wasn’t helped by Van Nistelrooy’s defensive setup, but the least supporters expect is a bit of fight and passion. The Frenchman lost Kudus for West Ham’s first goal and was completely passive all night.
Wilfred Ndidi – 5
Usually, he’s the classy operator in the middle of the park for Leicester, and when he had the chance to dictate the tempo, he used the ball well. A rare highlight for the Foxes on another difficult night.
Facundo Buonanotte – 4
Only made his third start under Van Nistelrooy in the league after impressing against Brentford. But the Argentine, like many of his teammates, didn’t take his chance. He was bullied on several occasions by West Ham and only started to show his quality towards the end.
Bilal El Khannouss – 4
In the first half, he was completely frozen out of the game and gave away possession cheaply on multiple occasions. But once Leicester showed a bit of desire to commit bodies forward, he was able to impact the game a lot more.
Bobby De Cordova Reid – 2
Hooked off on the hour mark for Stephy Mavididi after the winger failed to show anything in the game, with the Frenchman coming on and making an instant impact.
Jamie Vardy – 4
Cut a dejected figure at the top of the pitch. Vardy was isolated for the full game, but as usual, his work ethic couldn’t be faulted as he continued to chase even when his teammates weren’t.
Substitutes
Stephy Mavididi – 5
Came off the bench and instantly showed his intent by driving at the opposition and taking the fight to West Ham, something the majority of his teammates failed to do.
Harry Winks – 3
Used the ball well when he came on but questions have to be asked about his desire to win possession back and track back for his team.
Patson Daka – N/A
Luke Thomas – N/A
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