Strikers like Ruud Van Nistelrooy don’t come along very often.
He was ranked at no.16 in FourFourTwo’s list of the greatest finishers in football history, and during his time at Manchester United scored 150 goals in just 219 games, a phenomenal return.
Since 2013 he has been involved coaching, initially with PSV’s academy teams as well as assisting Guus Hiddink with the Dutch national team.
Striker claims there is an ‘understated’ side to Van Nistelrooy’s coaching
Van Nistelrooy has some managerial pedigree and despite enduring a tough run in charge of Leicester, he was unbeaten in his four games in charge of Manchester United as interim head coach and won the Dutch Cup in 2023 as manager of PSV.
He also clearly knew how to score goals, and it seems he was able to pass some of that knowledge over to young strikers while coaching in the academy at PSV.
Joel Piroe, who plays for Leeds and has scored 16 goals in the Championship this season was one of the beneficiaries and revealed some of the lessons that the bagsman was able to pass on.
Speaking to Voetbal Primeur via Sport Witness, Piroe said: “At PSV, I often had striker training from Ruud.
“In that, he trained us well on what to do and what to expect. That is perhaps a bit understated with him.
“Habits, what you do as a striker, what you look for from defenders, where you know the spaces fall, techniques in terms of shooting and repeating that.”
Van Nistelrooy has perhaps been dealt a tough hand at the helm of Leicester. The squad were unequipped to take on much of the Premier League and he was given little reinforcement in January when it was desperately needed.
Bizarrely, he resigned as manager with one game left of the 2022/23 season although his PSV side sat in second place and had qualified for the Champions League. He cited a lack of support as his reason for his resignation, an ominous sign for Foxes fans.
