Ruud van Nistelrooy breaks unwanted Premier League record as Leicester crisis deepens

Ruud van Nistelrooy openly questioned his players’ quality after Leicester City hit a new low in their thrashing by Brentford on Friday night.

Leicester were beaten 4-0 at home by the Bees in the Premier League, putting in another miserable performance at home. The away side scored three times inside the opening 32 minutes to take complete control and spark an early exodus of supporters.

Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo, Christian Norgaard and Fabio Carvalho all got on the score sheet to underline Leicester’s worrying slide. While they remain 19th and just two points from safety, everything is heading in the wrong direction for Van Nistelrooy.

The Dutchman claimed four points from his opening two games after taking over from Steve Cooper in late November, but Friday was his 10th defeat in 11 games, while he has lost 11 out of 15 altogether. Remarkably, Friday marked the sixth straight home game in which Leicester have lost and failed to score, which is the longest ever run by a top-flight side in a single season.

“We have to accept that we are in a position where every week we face a better team,” Van Nistelrooy said. “We have to prepare a team to be the best we can be. We cannot ask more from ourselves.

“In the end you have to look at performing at the maximum of your capabilities. I cannot ask the players to do more than that. With the squad we have, it’s a huge mountain to climb to stay in this league, a huge one. That’s the reality.

“Today it showed that when we make a couple of mistakes and we didn’t perform at our best, Brentford was too big a challenge for us. It’s not fair to have certain expectations. You cannot live up to them. You can only be the best you can be. We’ll see at the end if it’s enough or not.

Image: Rene Nijhuis/Getty Images) Rene Nijhuis/Getty Images)

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“So far we’re in that bottom three for a while and every game we play, we almost face a better side than ourselves. Everything has to go right to get results and points and that’s the reality we’re in.”

Jamie Vardy came closest to giving the home fans something to cheer, but was denied by Brentford keeper Mark Flekken. There was a tempestuous mood inside the King Power Stadium as supporters protested against director of football Jon Rudkin and chanted “sack the board”.

Foxes captain Vardy said: "There is nothing we can do, everyone is entitled to their opinion and to voice that and that is what the fans are doing. That is up to them, we just have to concentrate on the football and that is all we can do."

Leicester travel to face West Ham on Thursday before beginning a tricky run of games against Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Newcastle.

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