Ruud van Nistelrooy's peculiar sub explained as Leicester City could rue released star's rise
Very rarely are centre-back substitutions straight swaps. Unless there is an injury, it’s often the case that a central defender will only be subbed off if the manager wants an extra attacker on the pitch, and they will only be subbed on if a lead needs defending.
But in six of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s seven matches in charge of Leicester City, he’s made a like-for-like swap at centre-back. His starting pair has been Conor Coady and Jannik Vestergaard in every match, and in all but one game, at least one has been withdrawn for Wout Faes or Caleb Okoli.
While it may seem like a straight swap, it’s not quite that. The reason it’s happened so often is because City have mostly been chasing results. In those scenarios, to make the team more attacking, van Nistelrooy has tweaked his tactics to let both full-backs attack, rather than just one.
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However, that leaves more space to defend at the back. And so, recognising that Faes and Okoli are quicker at covering ground than Coady and Vestergaard, the manager brings on one of his faster centre-backs to cope with the extra space that needs marshalling.
Van Nistelrooy explained last month: “It depends on what the game needs. With the characteristics of Wout, when you’re chasing a game like against Brighton, we put both full-backs forward and Wout is somebody who can handle defending those spaces very well and to build up with two instead of three.
“When we have to defend a result, there’s the option of bringing on an extra centre-back. That’s also a good option.”
City could rue Maswanhise exit
“The sky’s the limit” for former City forward Tawanda Maswanhise as he continues his good form in Scotland. If he keeps it up, City will be ruing they didn’t do more to keep him.
Despite making his senior debut for the club in the FA Cup last season, Maswanhise was released in the summer and headed north of the border to Motherwell. This week, the 22-year-old was named their player of the month for December.
After easing his way in, he’s been regularly contributing. It’s now five goals and three assists in his last eight Scottish Premiership starts. Included in that run were two goals against Rangers and Aberdeen where the Zimbabwe international showed off brilliant control and cool finishes.
After the win over Aberdeen, Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell said of Maswanhise: “He had a massive, massive bearing on the game for us yet again. He needs to continue that because the sky starts to become the limit, in my opinion, if he can rack up the numbers along with the performances.
“He’s a breath of fresh air. We didn't feel that he turned up against Hearts in the last game. There's always a frustration when you know that he's got so much quality. I’m not pinning that on solely him. It's just that when you're as good at handling the ball and that creative brain that he's got and the quality he's got, we want it every single week.
“But remembering that he's in his infancy in his senior career, he's not played that many senior games, but he's having a good impact. He gives you a threat playing between players and receiving the ball, but I also think he gives you that threat with his pace. A lot of people just lean to the fact that he's got that pace, but very, very clever when he's changing direction and how he handles the ball.”
If the sky is the limit for Maswanhise, then City may rue his exit. It’s beginning to bear a resemblance to Calvin Bassey’s career progression. The defender left City on a free transfer to Rangers in 2020, and then two years later was the subject of a £20m switch to Ajax.
Schlupp’s Premier League spell may be nearing end
When Jeff Schlupp left City six months after they won the Premier League title, it would not have been expected that his Premier League career would go on so long. But at Crystal Palace, he established himself as an important member of the squad and is now in his 11th top-flight campaign.
However, his spell as a Premier League player may soon end. His contract at Selhurst Park ends in the summer and the 32-year-old has been linked with a move to Blackburn and Preston this month.
