Ruud van Nistelrooy makes change to Manchester United preparations for Leicester fixture

Ruud van Nistelrooy has made a tweak to Manchester United's preparations for their Premier League visit of Leicester City on Sunday.

Van Nistelrooy took interim charge of United for the third time on Thursday night, overseeing a 2-0 Europa League win against PAOK at Old Trafford.

If United play on Thursday night they usually conduct the pre-match press conference for their Sunday match after the game but Van Nistelrooy has opted to hold a standalone press conference at Carrington today.

Sources say Van Nistelrooy wanted to focus entirely on the PAOK match on Thursday and then switch his focus to Leicester on Friday. He will hold his final press conference at Carrington at 1.15pm.

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Previous managers Erik ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho almost always switched from post-match Europa League press briefings to pre-match Premier League engagements on Thursday evenings.

Extensive building work at United's Carrington training complex has contributed to the club primarily holding pre-match Premier League press conferences on Thursdays this season.

United have traditionally held pre-match press conferences on Fridays but the press almost always gathered to speak to Ten Hag on Thursdays this term before his dismissal last month.

Work is underway at Carrington as part of a £50million enhancement of the club's facilities. United announced in early June they would modernise the men’s first team building, with a "focus on creating a high-performance collaborative environment for players and staff".

Previously, two media rooms either side of the main reception at Carrington were used for media activity. The old press room occasionally held press conferences and provided a work station for journalists but was predominantly used for interviews once Carrington reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic.

A second media room used to house equipment for in-house media and was then dressed up to host interviews and Zoom calls.

With both of those rooms currently unusable, the bulk of United's media activities are carried out in the Jimmy Murphy Centre, where press conferences have taken place for the past decade.

Rather than cram all of their media engagements into one day, United spread them across Thursdays and Fridays, with press conferences now moved to Thursdays.

Van Nistelrooy's first press conference last week was at 4pm on Thursday, the slot favoured by Ten Hag this season. It is unclear if Ruben Amorim will seek a switch back to Friday gatherings. Premier League clubs are obliged to conduct their pre-match press conference by 13.30pm on Friday at the latest.

Sir Alex Ferguson used to hold his press conferences upstairs in the academy building, which temporarily hosts the United players until the first team hub reopens.