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GeorgeTheFox

Jamie Vardy Appreciation

By GeorgeTheFox, in Leicester City Forum

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MancFox24

MancFox24

Posted
Posted

Not a subscriber to the athletic so I can't read the article and I know headlines don't often accurately reflect what is said in the piece, but I would suggest there have been lots of signs that vardy has slowed down in the last couple of seasons

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Clever Fox

Clever Fox

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If he gets us over the promotion line he'll have earned a new Contract. Though I'm sure he has promotion bonus built in already.

 

We definitely need a new Striker for next season. Money will be tight so we need to find a young player who's already scoring lots of Goals who can come into the team immediatley.

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HankMarvin

HankMarvin

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Jamie Vardy is a phenomenon – and he is showing no signs of slowing down

HULL, ENGLAND - MARCH 09: Jamie Vardy of Leicester City reacts as he is substituted during the Sky Bet Championship match between Hull City and Leicester City at MKM Stadium on March 09, 2024 in Hull, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

In the early days of his Leicester Citytenure, Enzo Maresca could have been forgiven for wondering what he had inherited when it came to one member of his squad.

Here was a player who wasn’t the best trainer and refused to do weights sessions with the rest of his team-mates — but when it came to matchday, he was primed and very much still the talisman.

Maresca had played with some of the greats of the game, such as Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro Del Piero at Juventus, but now he was managing a player the like of whom he had never encountered before: Jamie Vardy.

Leicester’s squad had to adapt quickly to Maresca’s style of play but, equally, the Italian has had to adapt to his now 37-year-old striker’s unique approach.

After nearly 12 years with Leicester, Vardy has a tailor-made training regime, which has undeniably been a factor in his longevity. Vardy doesn’t train rigorously and does his own conditioning work, which doesn’t include lifting heavy weights. It’s an outlook that would extend to when he was on England duty.

Occasionally, Vardy misses training entirely, with his focus solely on being ready for matchday.

Following his game-winning goal at Sunderland last Tuesday, for example, he didn’t train at all ahead of the trip to Hull City on Saturday — yet he scored both Leicester’s goals in their 2-2 draw at the MKM Stadium.

vardy-copy-scaled-e1710261420404.jpg
Vardy celebrates scoring against Hull last weekend (George Wood/Getty Images)

His pre-match routine of three Red Bulls, an espresso and a ham and cheese omelette hasn’t changed either.

Maresca, however, has never interfered or even questioned how Vardy’s approach works. It probably wouldn’t suit any other player, but it works for him and the Leicester manager knows if it isn’t broken there is no need to fix it.

All of Maresca’s predecessors who have worked with Vardy have quickly come to the same conclusion: to get the best out of the striker, he must be treated differently from the rest of the squad. After all, he is unique and knows better than anyone what he needs to do to be ready to perform.

None of this means that he slacks off, though.

Vardy has plenty of equipment at home to ensure he recovers between games. His use of a cryo chamber and oxygen tent is widely known, and he also uses his swimming pool for hydrotherapy. Yet, while many players are increasingly hiring external fitness and conditioning experts to better prepare them for their return to pre-season training after the summer break, Vardy spends the post-season hiatus on his sofa, enjoying a few beers.

If any fitness experts scoff at Vardy’s approach, then the evidence that it works lies in his numbers — and the fact he is still playing at a high standard in his late thirties (when most players are well past their peak and are thinking of retirement).

Vardy has no intention of retiring. In fact, he is enjoying his best Leicester season yet in terms of his minutes-per-goal average.

But his impact on Maresca’s side goes beyond just his goal tally. His presence also has a big influence on those around him, providing confidence and leadership. He has been the captain this season in the matches he has started.

In the early games last summer, Maresca was rotating between Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho as his lone striker, then Patson Daka stepped in for the longest consecutive run of starts in the role.

This has led to Vardy only starting 12 times in the 2023-24 Championship, but Leicester’s win ratio when he is in the line-up stands at 75 per cent (they have won nine, drawn two and lost one of those games). The team’s overall win percentage in the league this season is 70.

And with nine league matches remaining, it seems Maresca will lean on Vardy even more to get the club over the line and back in the Premier League. It means the forward’s recovery between games is even more important.

The pressure will build over the coming weeks as the four-way fight for the division’s two automatic promotion spots reaches its climax. It will be a new experience for most of Maresca’s men — but not for Vardy. He was part of the Leicester side who won the Championship title in 2013-14, and he thrives on that sort of pressure.

Wherever Leicester go, Vardy is the target of the opposition fans’ taunts, which are usually about his wife. Those supporters do it to try to knock him off his stride… yet it seems to have the opposite effect and fires him up even more.

Usually after Vardy scores, he stands and stares at the other team’s fans behind the goal, soaking up their ire until the referee has to tell him to return to the halfway line.

On one hand, Vardy is the Leicester player opposition supporters love to hate, but deep down many of them would love him to be playing for them. He’s not only a top striker, but he is also the working-class boy who — had he not made it as a player — would probably be in the stands himself, giving a player facing his team some abuse.

Vardy is in the final months of his contract and there appears to be a desire on both sides for him to continue at the club. But if he does leave this summer — and it is unclear yet how the impact of any possible profit and sustainability sanctions could affect Leicester’s contract and transfer decisions — there will be many clubs interested in signing him for a year.

As the former Manchester City and Argentina striker Sergio Aguero said in the documentary series All Or Nothing — as he admired the Vardy shirt he had requested for his son Benjamin — the Yorkshireman has been, and continues to be, “a phenomenon”.

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South Shire Fox

South Shire Fox

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Posted (edited)

This threads very quiet considering his 3 sitters cost us the game. His finishing was shite today, however he makes alot of chances with his touches and so taking him off was a bizarre decision considering we’d just conceded

Edited by South Shire Fox
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Gamble92

Gamble92

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Just now, ARTY_FOX said:

He shouldnt be starting. 

Hate all you want. If that's daka this place is saying he isn't good enough for coalville Town. 

 

You're right, response to Daka missing would be on another level.

 

But Vardy has more than earned the right not to have everyone throw shit at him.

 

I'm still sat here blaming how we play more than those chances missed. I don't think we should be relying on just those chances to win a game when a philosophy supposedly implemented to ensure lack of chances at the other end leaves so many of our games down to the same amount of chances. This is the championship too. The amount of chances the likes of Cardiff and Rotherham squandered against us, it's really really not showing what it can do. I don't think it ever did.

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dannythefox

dannythefox

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Posted
4 minutes ago, ARTY_FOX said:

He shouldnt be starting. 

Hate all you want. If that's daka this place is saying he isn't good enough for coalville Town. 

 

Give over ffs Daka would have put them over the crossbar. We were shite just like the last 8 games get over it.

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FrankieADZ

FrankieADZ

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5 minutes ago, ARTY_FOX said:

He shouldnt be starting. 

Hate all you want. If that's daka this place is saying he isn't good enough for coalville Town. 

 

thats what gets me, while Vardy has credit in the bank already so to speak, some of the missed chances hes had this season is just as bad as Daka, if not worse for me

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HankMarvin

HankMarvin

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Posted
3 minutes ago, ARTY_FOX said:

He shouldnt be starting. 

Hate all you want. If that's daka this place is saying he isn't good enough for coalville Town. 

 

Maybe if the other strikers had out performed him this season they would be starting, Daka started well then his form fell of a cliff, Vardy 5 goals last 5 games 

7 goals in his last 7 games in just 413 minutes with equates 4.5 full games since returning from injury. 
I guess that equates to money in the bank on current form.

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ARTY_FOX

ARTY_FOX

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38 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Maybe if the other strikers had out performed him this season they would be starting, Daka started well then his form fell of a cliff, Vardy 5 goals last 5 games 

7 goals in his last 7 games in just 413 minutes with equates 4.5 full games since returning from injury. 
I guess that equates to money in the bank on current form.

Because as shocking as it maybe. Vardy isn't the player he used to be and coming off the bench is his best bet? 

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ARTY_FOX

ARTY_FOX

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5 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Only 3 of his last 7 have been as a sub 

And his overall play has been rubbish. He's not finished chances that have been relative sitters. It's not his fault age catches up with everyone. But the man to lead an attack he is not anymore. 

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Old Fox

Old Fox

Posted
Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, ARTY_FOX said:

Its not though. Look at the thread after the Leeds match lmao. 

Yes it is ……he had an awful game by his standards BUT he is still our best striker by a mile and one of the if not the best in the championship …….why in gods name you take him off having gone a goal down and not put Kel alongside or behind him I will never understand - Daka would not have scored any of the chances JV had and JV is not the reason we are not going up - he is one of the few since Xmas who has stepped up. Farke and McKenna have plan B’s and would have attacked even going a goal down with more than one striker.

 

some of the emotional reactions are clap trap and JV is not the scapegoat ……the manager is and has been all season 2D and is out of his depth imo

Edited by Old Fox
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ARTY_FOX

ARTY_FOX

Posted
Posted (edited)
Just now, Old Fox said:

Yes it is ……he had an awful game by his standards BUT he is still our best striker by a mile and one of the if not the best in the championship …….why in gods name you take him off having gone a goal down and not put Kel alongside or behind him I will never understand - Daka would not have scored any of the chances JV had 

It's not. If it had been daka. People would be going berserk. How can you say thats wrong? When it quite clearly isn't. 

 

You don't put kel along side him because he should have scored 3 relatively easy goals but didn't. He was poor. 

Edited by ARTY_FOX
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