Ruud van Nistelrooy is making three statements with timing of Leicester City decision
While Ruud van Nistelrooy was keen to emphasise that the inclusion of talented teenagers Jeremy Monga and Jake Evans in the squad at Manchester United was merited, it does also allow the Leicester City manager to make a few points.
Monga may be 15, but he’s “being really effective in deciding games” at Premier League 2 level, van Nistelrooy said, the manager adding that “you see a physical profile that allows that and you see a mental profile that allows that”. The winger is “ready for this”.
It’s similar for Evans too. He’s scored eight goals in 16 starts for the Under-21s and is their top scorer this season, even at just 16 years of age. Van Nistelrooy said: “He’s quick, powerful, has a great left foot, can score a goal. You can see in training he’s fearless, he takes people on. He’s a good character.”
READ MORE: Leicester City predicted line-up v Manchester United with three changes made
READ MORE: Ruud van Nistelrooy gives firm answer on Leicester City future after transfer change
The evidence is there that they have earned this opportunity, even at such a grand stage as Old Trafford. But there are plenty of added benefits too.
Shows the future is with Leicester City
City can talk all they like about how they are the best club for the duo to develop, but actions speak louder than words. They need to offer proof that their progression to the very top of the game is best served by staying with the club they have grown up with.
Van Nistelrooy was open about this. He doesn’t need to hide the fact that other clubs are sniffing around them, especially Monga. He was talking up City as an ideal pathway and that “not many clubs” offer what they offer in terms of first-team involvement, and he is now providing evidence of that.
Will it work? Maybe. It feels a tough ask with Monga given the giants of world football are after him. But City have to try. And it at least shows kids and their families who have a choice between academies that City care about talented young players.
It’s also a sign, perhaps, that van Nistelrooy really is in it for the long haul. He’s said he won’t walk away from the tough job he has at City – one that has become even tougher with the lack of transfers – and bringing through young players is only going to make the squad stronger in the long term.
Shows the board what he’s working with
Van Nistelrooy clearly likes working with and developing young talent. It does feel key to Dutch football and he rattled off a list of PSV players who he felt improved under his watch during his time in Eindhoven.
But the timing of Evans and Monga’s inclusion in the squad, straight after a transfer window, feels rather pointed. While van Nistelrooy put on a brave face over City’s changing transfer possibilities and their single arrival in January, it was clearly nowhere near what he would have liked and what he thought he would get.
A little like when a manager puts two goalkeepers on the bench to show their lack of options, calling on two players of such a tender age feels similar. If this is what the club are having him work with, then he’s going to do it.
He could quite easily have included Monga and Evans in the squad for the previous round, a home game against QPR. Everything that is true now over their merits for a first-team call-up were true then.
Plus, it’s not as if they are being included in a much-rotated squad. Van Nistelrooy has signalled that he will go full strength at Old Trafford, with Evans and Monga alongside the club’s big-hitters.
It seems like a permanent move. Last week, before the transfer window shut, van Nistelrooy spoke of how Evans and Monga would be included in the first team in pre-season ahead of a permanent promotion for next term. Now, having not received a winger in the transfer market, he’s said that Monga will train alongside the first team for the rest of this campaign.
Shows the squad the standards they must hit
Finally, it’s a message to the other players in the squad. Van Nistelrooy talks about standards a lot and it’s clear, given City’s results and some of the performances they have produced, that they have been some way from hitting those required standards regularly.
The manager said on Thursday: “We reach a high level in spells. But the consistency is failing. We can play well and then a week later we are nowhere near that. Consistency is not a button. The standards have to be raised day to day to become more consistent.”
A call-up for Evans and Monga tells the rest of the first-team squad that if they don’t perform, they will be replaced by a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old. Nobody wants to be the player who misses out at the expense of a kid.
It should make the rest of the first-team squad uncomfortable, and that would be a good thing. They need to raise the levels and the threat of two whippersnappers taking their spot should do that.
