Van Nistelrooy wary of Man Utd's improvement

Ruud van Nistelrooy issues instructions during Leicester's game at Chelsea — Ruud Van Nistelrooy faces former club Manchester United for the second time this weekend [Getty Images]

Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy believes Manchester United are in a "better place" than when they beat the Foxes in February.

Harry Maguire's injury-time header - which should have been ruled out for offside - gave United a 2-1 FA Cup win.

Since then, United have lost once in the Premier League and reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League, after a 5-2 aggregate win over Real Sociedad, although were knocked out of the FA Cup by Fulham on penalties.

They go to King Power Stadium on Sunday 14th in the table.

"It's a great boost [for them] they are in the quarter finals of the Europa League," said Van Nistelrooy.

"Bruno [Fernandes] is in great form, so he is very decisive in that team. It's a team which has some momentum going, so they are in a better place than when we played them in the FA Cup."

Former United striker Van Nistelrooy left Old Trafford after a spell as interim manager in November after Ruben Amorim's appointment - having rejoined the club as assistant coach to Erik ten Hag last summer.

He was unbeaten in his four games in charge - which included two wins over Leicester.

The Foxes have lost 12 of their past 13 games in the Premier League, leaving them second bottom and six points from safety.

They have also not scored a home league goal since 8 December, when they drew 2-2 with Brighton in Van Nistelrooy's second game.

"I wouldn't go into that particularly and blow it up. It's one of the things we work on. We are conceding too many goals and we are trying to improve," he said.

"The chances we create and the chances we missed, we have spoken about it before. It's also knowing from experience. I didn't score every game and I missed some chances, or I didn't score for a couple of games. When you start scoring you get momentum and the goals will come."

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