Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy shares what Newcastle have opened his eyes to after watching them live

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Newcastle United inflicted Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first defeat as Leicester City manager on Saturday.

Ruud van Nistelrooy became Leicester City manager at the end of November after impressing during an interim spell at Manchester United.

He remained unbeaten during his time at Old Trafford and then took four points from his opening two games as Leicester boss with a win against West Ham and a draw against Brighton.

Next up was a trip to St James’ Park, but Newcastle beat Leicester 4-0 on Saturday with an emphatic performance. Eddie Howe’s side completely dominated the match and an angry Van Nistelrooy lost his cool and was involved in a heated exchange with Jason Tindall.

Newcastle fans raved about Lewis Hall’s display, while Leicester were unable to handle Anthony Gordon as he starred on the left.

Ruud van Nistelrooy comments after Newcastle beat Leicester

Saturday’s victory was easily one of Newcastle’s best performances of the season, and it brutally put an end to Van Nistelrooy’s unbeaten run as manager.

After the full-time whistle, the Leicester boss commented on what he had learned from the humbling defeat.

Via the official Leicester website, Van Nistelrooy said: “In defeat, you learn the most. It’s important to evaluate every game you play and things you can improve.

“Against this Newcastle team, it shows where we can improve, because it’s such a good opponent and that helps to analyse it and build to do better.”

Three positives from Newcastle 4-0 win over Leicester

Saturday’s clash against Leicester felt like a really important game for Newcastle and especially Howe after he faced questions over his future.

He defended his style of play and promised that Newcastle would “entertain” – he certainly kept to that promise against Leicester.

There are plenty of positives from Newcastle to take, including the fact that they finally beat weaker opposition with a dominant and exciting performance.

READ MORE: Lewis Hall is achieving superstar status as numbers show Newcastle star is dominating Premier League

Additionally, Newcastle have improved at set pieces, with Jacob Murphy and Bruno Guimaraes scoring after well-worked dead-ball situations.

Finally, Newcastle’s lack of goalscorers was proving to be an issue. Before the Leicester match they had the lowest number of scorers at five, but Guimaraes and Murphy added to that tally on Saturday.