Ruud van Nistelrooy refrained from singling out individual Leicester City players despite another costly mistake leading to their fifth consecutive defeat.
The City boss witnessed his side suffer a 1-0 loss to Aston Villa, with Leon Bailey scoring the decisive goal 15 minutes from time. The goal stemmed from another City error, though there was some ambiguity about who was primarily responsible.
James Justin hesitated to clear the ball and eventually attempted a pass to Jordan Ayew, who was slow to react. Ian Maatsen capitalized on the moment, intercepting and setting up Bailey to score.
While van Nistelrooy avoided assigning blame directly, his comments hinted at Justin’s responsibility for the error.
He expressed frustration at the situation but maintained his players deserved credit for their overall performance, insisting they were close to earning a valuable point.
“It’s clear,” van Nistelrooy said. “You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it and the players know. So there’s no need to emphasise it. I can’t hold anything against anyone because it was an honest mistake.
“Nobody wanted to give the ball away in such moments, but it’s something you have to learn from because it’s costing you. It would have been a hard-fought point away at Villa and a positive. Every week we’re getting closer to converting good performances into results.
“It’s not about blaming and pointing, it’s about handling the situation as a team and clearing away from danger. I don’t hold anything against one of my players.
“I can only praise them for their efforts for the way they played together as a team. It’s a foundation for points. They’re vital to give yourself the rewards.”
Reflecting on the match, van Nistelrooy noted similarities with their 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in their final game of 2024. Despite improving defensively and showing composure on the ball, errors continued to undermine their efforts.
He added: “I can repeat myself from last week. It was a good performance, a decent performance. But I think through our own mistakes we let in the two goals, especially the second one.
“I think we could have done better for the second phase of the corner (for the first). These are standard situations we can handle better. In the Premier League, these situations are punished without blinking your eyes.
“That’s the disappointing bit. Because over 95 minutes, look at the possession, we were calm, composed on the ball, had some very good spells, created a couple of good chances.
“It was a very stable performance off the ball where Jakub (Stolarczyk) hasn’t really had to make a save. In general, those are a lot of positives, that are important conclusions to get points in this league. It’s just in the final details where it’s costing us against Man City and against Villa.”
