Vardy

[SB87_LCFC]

I did think myself there was something in it having watched the footage back but it's not really clear who it's directed at (although most will say Puel).

 

i don't think we're seeing the JV we all know and have adored as one of our best players. His game is very different, he clearly has some form of respect for the manager by doing as he's told tactically, (apart from the wild tackle on Lindleof). We're not seeing that tenacity and high intense pressure on defenders were so used to seeing, nor is he getting the balls to run onto. Yes he probably should of scored definitely once, maybe twice, but this is a striker we're clearly not playing to and we should be given the teams track record when we have an on song Vardy. Plus I don't know many managers who let their no.9 run around in training dressed as Spider-Man and let him get away with it if there is any issues. 

 

I am very on the fence with Puel at the moment, maybe Tielemans in the side may see us play better football, instead of watching through my hands at Mendy and Wilf like I was today 

[TonyN11]

24 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

Maddison is way too light weight to play from deep, he lacks the tackling and positioning for a good deep playmaker. He comes deep to receive the ball but I'd feel uncomfortable him having much defensive responsibility.

Agree with this. We expect a lot from Maddison and he does some good stuff but we need him to impose himself more and that probably won't happen until next season. Looking forward to seeing our loan signing over the next few months 

Edited 3 February 2019 by TonyN11

[Izzy]

15 minutes ago, Blue-fox said:

Any body else on here think that maybe his legs have gone? 

Not me.

 

During the warm up and just before KO he was sprinting around like a mad man. Then late in the 2nd half he sprinted all the way back to our box to make a tackle.

 

I don’t get to games that often these days but he still looked as quick as ever to me today.

[HankMarvin]

38 minutes ago, knitro said:

I'm exhausted by the entitled, low-IQ element of this fan base and have no interest in hearing what they say any longer. They've been trotting out the same three shitty arguments for the better part of a year and it just shows how continually out of touch they are. 

Please post more 

we will miss you gracing us with your superior intellect.

It would be such a shame if you don’t comment.

[mad biker]

So it`s all fine and dandy for players to be all over eachother, swapping shirts and all that shit after games but the managers can`t ?? 

[chapero82]

20 minutes ago, knitro said:

Yeah, I just don't think you understand the sport or the landscape the club finds itself in these days. 

I understand it perfectly 

[BenTheFox]

Vardy is possibly my favourite Leicester player ever. However, you're in deniable if you can't see that he's on the decline. He's still a good striker, but our style of play isn't the only reason why he's not been having the same joy this season. 

[vanity]

Just now, splinterdream said:

Lukaku has played 22 games with 8 goals, Sanchez 1 in 13 games. Vardy is having an okay season but I think it would benefit Vardy and the team if we didn't play with 2/3 CDM's every game. We don't have to base the team around Vardy but can play more to his strengths at times. I don't see enough off the ball movement in the final third, we look static which causes our problems i think.

 

I would have liked us to have got a forward in that could hold up the ball as a plan B with Iheanacho going out on loan, I'm not ready to give up on the Nacho just yet.

First, we have been held to zero or one goal in 18 of our last 21 matches.

 

Re Iheanacho -- you have to understand mate, we just watched him defend against our own attack. I cannot be expected to take Nacho's future seriously at any point today. Sure, I am happy to see us keep him for development -- I mean, at this point, IDK what else we would do with him, I cannot imagine anyone would take him off our hands for anything more than a bag of used footballs. But he has regressed so severely that he cannot at present be expected to contribute in any material way to the first team. We need to find another solution for him, and I suppose allow Claude to continue working with him.

 

Don't forget, Vardy is a precious sort of striker who just about nobody could pair with outside Shinji in the 442. We tried over and over again to find him an upgrade to partner with him, and nobody could do the job. It is almost impossible to play to Vardy's strengths at this point, he is a quality striker I agree, but we cannot get him balls over the top all game when we are facing teams playing deep lines. Non top-6 teams rarely give him a chance to chase anymore. 

 

I completely agree we need to drop a DM. We need to pick either Ndidi or Mendy, the other plays as a back-up, and we need to play Tielemans if it's a 2, or Hamza, Tiel, and Ndidi/Mendy in the 3. I think Ndidi and Mendy have slogged of late bc they are fuching exhausted, they looked much better against Liverpool but looked worn out again today, they do so much for us that alternating or substituting one for the other makes a great deal of sense to me, just so that we always have one of them fresh. Yes, we could in theory use Hamza as a back-up in a 3, but he brings so much energy to the team that I want him out there, especially the way we have been dragging and playing not to make a mistake to start matches. Personally I would go with Ndidi, I have noticed him moving on the ball with much more confidence, and even making a move on a defender here and there, though those shots from the top of the box need to stop if he cannot do anything but blast the ball 19 rows back. But he will be with us longer than Ndidi, has a far superior injury history, and is much younger, and thus still has some upside potentially.

 

I appreciate and respect the f out of Vardy, but we need to be objective. He isn't getting the job done, and while we can complain about service, and rightly so at times, he is getting enough service to be scoring more than he is. He's got 4 goals our last 18 games. He's on pace to finish with 12 overall. We need more from him. He is getting opportunities. He has been a bit unlucky as well (that bicycle kick right at De Gea was a real shame), but he is missing shots he normally slots in the back of the net. With nobody else scoring, our attack is comically poor. At the end of the day though, we didn't add a CF, so who cares? It is all academic at this point.

[kyleolly]

He’s upfront on his own and it don’t really work he’s at his best when he has a strike partner to do the less glamorous stuff ie nugent/Okazaki and even Slimani at times now he’s getting older and having to do more work it don’t really make sense!

[nepa fox]

Pointless thread

[UniFox21]

51 minutes ago, TonyN11 said:

Agree with this. We expect a lot from Maddison and he does some good stuff but we need him to impose himself more and that probably won't happen until next season. Looking forward to seeing our loan signing over the next few months 

This year he's getting used to the pace and physicality of the prem. He's doing bloody well. 

 

And yeah, very excited to see how Tielemans plays. 

[Clarkey123]

Vardy and rondon up top would be formidable 

[LestaAl]

Jamie isn’t getting the service AND is in decline given his age,   He is still brilliant but lack of confidence and service is having an affect. He has had chances to score at home and  failed to hit the back of the net mostly..

......maybe Claude will set up a more attacking mid field and some of these issues will go away.

we live in hope...

[Stevosevic]

The lack of service argument isn't true. 

 

He's missed a lot of big chances this season and not really made the most of half chances.

 

That's why his tally is so much lower than last season. 

 

The numbers are out there to support that. 

[steflcfc]

Unfortunately, the knives are out for Puel and any little thing that can be made into a story will be.

 

Perfectly timed from the Sky caremas to go from Puel to Vardy.

The papers and Sky can certainly add and influence public opinion.

 

Puel has his work cut out on numerous fronts this season.

 

Atracking options we severely lack and haven’t improved since Mahrez left, and looking on the bench at Okazaki and Iheanacho for goals can’t be that inspiring for a manager.

 

Im sure in the summer he will address some of the issues with the squad upfront and central midfield.

 

 

[Mehrez]

Assuming Lingard walks in a straight line then he’s definitely talking about Puel there. Vardy is cutting a very frustrated figure these days and it’s causing him to fluff the few chances he gets, hoping Tielemans will allow Maddison to play further up and give him more service. Also right wing is still a position that needs addressing with some quality in the summer 

[Samilktray]

Seems a bit irrational to react like that, Claude just fancied a chat with Paul Pogba. 

[inckley fox]

54 minutes ago, Stevosevic said:

The lack of service argument isn't true. 

 

He's missed a lot of big chances this season and not really made the most of half chances.

 

That's why his tally is so much lower than last season. 

 

The numbers are out there to support that. 

It is true! I've seen people trot out the XG stat (the one that makes Aguero look useless, and Vardy look like ones of the best strikers in the world last season), but no self-respecting pundit would dream of claiming that Vardy is amply supplied in this side. Neither was he last year when he defied the odds. Neither was Slimani, Iheanacho, Gray when he played there, Okazaki, or any of the Southampton players under Puel. 

 

To counterbalance the one set of stats, his shots to goal ratio and shots on target stats are perfectly respectable.

 

Today's game was a fine example. He nearly crafted one goal out of nothing, and a decent half-chance fell to him in the 87th minute which, on a good day, he'd have buried. But it would have been a good goal. Other than that he worked his socks off and picked up the ball more than any of our other three attacking starters, even though they should, in theory, have been providing for him.

 

He absolutely is not the key issue in this side. The obvious issues are full backs that advance and get caught by runners in behind, two defensive mids with a limited range of passing, and attacking mids who struggle to dominate the game in the opposition half. The ball seldom gets as far as the striker unless the striker comes to pick it up.

[Guest ttfn]

22 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

It is true! I've seen people trot out the XG stat (the one that makes Aguero look useless, and Vardy look like ones of the best strikers in the world last season), but no self-respecting pundit would dream of claiming that Vardy is amply supplied in this side. Neither was he last year when he defied the odds. Neither was Slimani, Iheanacho, Gray when he played there, Okazaki, or any of the Southampton players under Puel. 

 

I’m sorry but the xG stat is the most reliable statistic you’re going to get of how well served Vardy is in this team. If you don’t think there’s value in it that’s your look out but objectively it suggests Vardy has had plenty of chances this season and he’s just not taken them.

 

As for it suggesting Agüero is useless, again I’d suggest you’ve misunderstood it as Agüero has actually scored more than his xG this season.

 

Even anecdotally I could point to 10 clear cut chances Vardy has missed this season. I’m not expecting him to take all of them - far from it - but his finishing today was poor as it has been all season.

[inckley fox]

1 minute ago, ttfn said:

I’m sorry but the xG stat is the most reliable statistic you’re going to get of how well served Vardy is in this team. If you don’t think there’s value in it that’s your look out but objectively it suggests Vardy has had plenty of chances this season and he’s just not taken them.

 

As for it suggesting Agüero is useless, again I’d suggest you’ve misunderstood it as Agüero has actually scored more than his xG this season.

 

Even anecdotally I could point to 10 clear cut chances Vardy has missed this season. I’m not expecting him to take all of them - far from it - but his finishing today was poor as it has been all season.

I didn't say it was worthless at all, and I'm sure Aguero's goals today have boosted his stats no end too - before that they weren't so hot. Aubameyang and Firmino are still in negative figures. And, as I said, the xG had Vardy down as one of the world's best strikers last season, so if we're slating him now we also have to counterbalance that with credit. And these figures have to be taken in context, because if they weren't and we only went by xG ratings then Richarlison, Lacazette and Pedro would be better than Salah, Aguero and, in two of those cases, Kane.

 

My point was that there are other statistical measurements in which Vardy isn't doing so badly. And my point was that he isn't receiving ample supply, and no self-respecting expert under the sun would argue otherwise. Furthermore, that no striker - other than Vardy - has ever performed so much as passably under Puel in the EPL, across two different clubs. Puel's sides don't score many goals regardless of the personnel. That's a fact, as things stand. The daftest stance you could adopt when critiquing one of his teams is to fret yourself over whether the centre forward is the problem, especially when you know the centre forward in question has pedigree.

 

Vardy kept Puel in a job last season and the last two games that he won for us are keeping Puel in a job as we speak. He lived off scraps today, worked his socks off, picked up the ball more than any of our other attacking players, could have scored a belter entirely of his own making and - in the 87th minute - also, sadly, missed a reasonable chance, though by no means a sitter,.

 

But if we're looking for reasons for our defeat he'd be a way down the list. What frustrates me is that so many people - and I'm not saying you're one of them - seem to feel that the scapegoating of Vardy, the wondering whether he's betraying the boss, or causing problems, or losing his legs, or past his best, is a good first port of call in their defence of Puel. As someone who'd like to see Puel stay here and do well, and who believes that he can, I think that making this point repeatedly undermines our own argument. In the end the guy pummeling his chest and primally bellowing 'Puel Out' makes more sense than we do.

[yorkie1999]

One of the best strikers in the league completely nullified in what he does best.

[desertfox2]

25 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

One of the best strikers in the league completely nullified in what he does best.

True. I think with Vardy you just have to let him play. Ranieri tried to change him and he went through a bad patch then too. One of the reasons he is so good is the unpredictability and he's an absolute nightmare for a defender when he's allowed to play his own way.  He's that good that he just needs to be given carte blanche. 

[Dahnsouff]

Nothing to do with the fact he is badly out of form? Or am I not allowed to say that? (Or is that the managers fault too)

Vardy had a golden chance, but fluffed it, Puels fault too?

[Guest]

10 hours ago, mucfox said:

Sorry, but you can't compare Leicester to Chelsea. Higuain gets balls from Kante, Hazard, Willian etc. For every striker a great feeling to be fed by such top players - Jamie unfortunately has only mediocre footballers Grays, Maddisons, Ghezzals and other untalented players next to him.

 

I feel sorry for Jamie Vardy, because it can't be fun that way and then so-called fans expect him to take every chance to score. 

 

Not every chance, just a decent percentage of the good chances.

 

Jamie will always be a legend at the club, and he's by no means finished, but he's not been very good this season even though he has had a lot of chances. Think of him like Mourhino - a title winner recently but who isn't at that level any more.

[st albans fox]

59 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Nothing to do with the fact he is badly out of form? Or am I not allowed to say that? (Or is that the managers fault too)

Vardy had a golden chance, but fluffed it, Puels fault too?

Golden ?? not yesterday....he has missed a few of those golden chances this season but not yesterday (on his left foot remember)  ....... funnily enough my son said to ......Kane would have scored that .......perhaps .......

 

the players remain guilty of bad of bad decision making, all over the pitch. Why ? No idea. Snatching at chances, not playing the ball and shooting (and vica versa), passing inside when they should be going long up the line ...... barging players over inside the box....... the list goes on .....

Edited 4 February 2019 by st albans fox