Van Nistelrooy: We Gave Ourselves A Mountain To Climb

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Van Nistelrooy: We Gave Ourselves A Mountain To Climb

Key moments in the first half allowed the game to run away from us at Goodison Park, says Ruud van Nistelrooy, following Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Everton.

2025-02-02T13:00+00:00

by Sam Jones

Published

02 Feb, 2025

from Goodison Park

Van Nistelrooy: We Gave Ourselves A Mountain To Climb

Key moments in the first half allowed the game to run away from us at Goodison Park, says Ruud van Nistelrooy, following Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Everton.

Sam Jones

2025-02-02T13:00+00:00

Van Nistelrooy: We Gave Ourselves A Mountain To Climb

Key moments in the first half allowed the game to run away from us at Goodison Park, says Ruud van Nistelrooy, following Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Everton.

Sam Jones

2025-02-02T13:00+00:00

Van Nistelrooy: We Gave Ourselves A Mountain To Climb

Key moments in the first half allowed the game to run away from us at Goodison Park, says Ruud van Nistelrooy, following Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Everton.

Sam Jones

2025-02-02T13:00+00:00

Van Nistelrooy: We Gave Ourselves A Mountain To Climb

Key moments in the first half allowed the game to run away from us at Goodison Park, says Ruud van Nistelrooy, following Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Everton.

Sam Jones

2025-02-02T13:00+00:00

Leicester City were beaten 4-0 by Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday
The Foxes remain in danger near the bottom of the Premier League table
Ruud van Nistelrooy provided his thoughts on a tough afternoon

The Toffees struck just 10 seconds into the contest, Abdoulaye Doucouré the man to score, and Beto soon added his name to the scoresheet, before completing a brace on the stroke of half-time.

With it all to do in the second period, there was no way back for van Nistelrooy’s men, who conceded a late fourth when Iliman N’diaye slotted home, handing David Moyes’ side a third straight win.

“We can do a lot better than we showed today,” the Dutchman admitted. “Of course, to go 1-0 down after 10 seconds from the kick-off and 2-0 down after six minutes, not being there to solve those situations and get through the first 15-20 minutes, that gave us a mountain to climb.

It was Everton's day on Merseyside.

“The one just before half-time, we concede when we could have gone into the break losing 2-0 where you can get back into the game in the second half. That was a fairly easy goal to concede so I think they were key moments in the first half that cost us the game.

“But also credit to Everton. They were very good today, very effective, taking all of their chances and were very solid off the ball as well.”

Heading into this encounter with confidence that last weekend's comeback victory over Tottenham Hotspur brought, we were unable to repeat the feat in Merseyside and must now look forward, the Manager says, with more opportunities to pick up points to come.

Home matches against Arsenal and Brentford follow Friday’s Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round clash at Manchester United for the Foxes.

He continued: “I feel we showed resilience at Spurs, going down 1-0 and turning the game around with a great performance and win there and we thought we could build on this and do better with a sequence of good performances and points. But we got thrown back today with this result. We’ve bounced back before and we’ll do it again.

A disappointing return for the Dane.

“We came with a bit of confidence and hope for the fans and everybody involved at the Club. Then it’s about consistency and doing things right in every second of a Premier League game.

“We are there as professionals and we are capable of dealing with these situations. It’s about reflecting and looking back on the things that we have to improve and recover and start again. That’s what it’s about.”

Mads Hermansen made his first start since recovering from a groin injury picked up against Newcastle United in December and the Dutchman revealed that it was a tough choice to start our No.30, given Jakub Stolarczyk’s fine performances in recent weeks.

“It’s good to have him back and good that he has got minutes and can build on his form,” van Nistelrooy said on Hermansen. “It was a difficult decision because Jakub did really well.

“He had an excellent period of games where he really helped the team move forward and showed that he is a Premier League ‘keeper, that’s what he has developed himself into and that’s a great thing.”

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