Van Nistelrooy: We Played With Spirit

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Van Nistelrooy: We Played With Spirit

Ruud van Nistelrooy felt the fine margins did not go in our favour as we slipped to a narrow defeat at Chelsea.

2025-03-10T08:51+00:00

by Sam Jones

Published

10 Mar, 2025

Van Nistelrooy: We Played With Spirit

Ruud van Nistelrooy felt the fine margins did not go in our favour as we slipped to a narrow defeat at Chelsea.

Sam Jones

2025-03-10T08:51+00:00

Van Nistelrooy: We Played With Spirit

Ruud van Nistelrooy felt the fine margins did not go in our favour as we slipped to a narrow defeat at Chelsea.

Sam Jones

2025-03-10T08:51+00:00

Van Nistelrooy: We Played With Spirit

Ruud van Nistelrooy felt the fine margins did not go in our favour as we slipped to a narrow defeat at Chelsea.

Sam Jones

2025-03-10T08:51+00:00

Van Nistelrooy: We Played With Spirit

Ruud van Nistelrooy felt the fine margins did not go in our favour as we slipped to a narrow defeat at Chelsea.

Sam Jones

2025-03-10T08:51+00:00

Ruud van Nistelrooy reacts to the 1-0 reverse at Chelsea on Sunday
Marc Cucurella scored the only goal at Stamford Bridge
The loss leaves us 19th in the Premier League with 10 games to play

A Marc Cucurella goal saw the Blues run out 1-0 winners on Sunday afternoon, leaving City in 19th position in the Premier League standings, six points adrift of safety, with this latest defeat a tough one to take for the Foxes having produced a much-improved performance.

Van Nistelrooy’s men had chances in the game but ultimately could not make one of them count to take at least a point back from the capital, despite Mads Hermansen saving a Cole Palmer penalty earlier in the contest.

“That is the phase that we are in,” the 48-year-old admitted. “Hermansen saves the pen and then on the other side we can go 1-0 up with a possible own goal or a deflection on the crossbar that lands for one of us and just tap it in. That could have been a moment which changed the momentum, but it will come.

“I’m frustrated and disappointed because the players deserved more today with the effort and the spirit and the quality that they played with on and off the ball as a group. The players who came on did their job. It was an excellent performance in all aspects of the game.

“We had discussed the West Ham game and I know the players believe and they fight and they never gave up. Of course, when you see the West Ham first half, it was not to do with giving up or a lack of spirit, we were trying to avoid to lose and that’s what you get.

“You work backwards, you’re not taking initiative in pressing moments and triggers or on the ball. You’re pushed really far back and that directly cost us the game. We said we weren’t going to do that anymore because we’re going to show what we’re about.

“We needed to present ourselves in the best possible way and to give credit to the team, they did that today.”

A change in shape from previous weeks proved fruitful in moments at Stamford Bridge and there are positives to take into the meeting with Manchester United next Sunday, van Nistelrooy believes.

“The back five, but especially the centre-backs Wout Faes, Conor Coady and Luke Thomas had excellent games,” the Dutchman analysed following full-time. “They really did well, and the wing-backs too coming higher up.

“I think Patson Daka gave Jamie [Vardy] a bit more support with [Bilal] El Khannouss and [Wilfred] Ndidi as attacking midfielders for that support. In total, [there were] some great bits. I enjoyed watching the players defend and build up and they went for the game.

“It was rightly rewarded with applause from our away end who were really supporting us and that is always a great feeling that they are right behind us and they are also ignited with our performance because they were loud today.

“It was one week that we worked on it. Of course, the players are used to playing in different structures and different styles. But they adapted really quickly into it and they showed a great game today against a really good opponent.

“After another week of work there is the possibility to improve again and see if we can do even better. We looked solid and we were a threat as well. Hopefully the clean sheets are coming and we can score some goals as well.”

Ricardo Pereira’s introduction as a substitute was a welcome return after over four months on the sidelines. The Portuguese full-back hadn’t featured since facing Ipswich Town back in November and his recovery from injury strengthens the squad heading into the final 10 games of the season.

“It was visible,” the former PSV Manager added on the 31-year-old. “We know what he is capable of. We saw when he came on as an inverted full-back linking the play forward higher up the pitch. It’s great to have him back. He’s a great personality and a great player.”

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