Jamie Vardy Appreciation

[Cecchini1976]

3 minutes ago, Paddy. said:

To be fair, the service to him was diabolical tonight. Both Albrighton and Cengo were guilty of not picking him out a few times when he was well placed. 

 he was poor and has been for a long time, looks like age and injurys have caught up with him. He hasn’t actually scored many goals at all from open play in the last year. Leicester legend and hope it’s just a blip, but pace has gone, and unfortunately he has never been a good technical player so looks very poor at the moment. Let’s hope it’s just a fitness thing, otherwise we are screwed 

Edited 25 February 2021 by Cecchini1976

[STUHILL]

Create chances for him and he will score. Not buying into this 'past his best' dialogue yet. He is still a top class striker who needs more creativity behind him. 

 

I agree with others who say that we have waited far too long to sort out a decent plan B striker though. Has to be done this summer! 

[jmono84]

Vardy is probably the hardest person to set up chances for if you’re playing against a deep block.

 

I feel it should be more balanced than that and it is because the threat of him means we should have more space behind him, we really could have done with a Maddison or Nacho tonight. We did nothing to exploit this and whatever Vardy tried to do went wrong. Bad bad day at the office for him and a lot of others.

[Leicesterpool]

13 hours ago, STUHILL said:

Create chances for him and he will score. Not buying into this 'past his best' dialogue yet. He is still a top class striker who needs more creativity behind him. 

 

I agree with others who say that we have waited far too long to sort out a decent plan B striker though. Has to be done this summer! 

Yeah we rely on him too much to save the day and it's just getting tired now. We've been so lucky in the last few seasons vardy hasn't had any long term injuries. We need another option too come on and get the fans excited about and take that pressure of vardy. Problem is we've been saying this for last three seasons yet nothing has been done. I'd even look at Adam Armstrong in the championship if money is tight at least hes young and offers some potential.

Edited 26 February 2021 by Leicesterpool

[honeybradger]

I think competition for vardy definitely has to be a priority for us this summer, it's a win-win for us, he's either not past his best and can hold down his position for another season or the competition wins the spot and we dont throw a whole season down the drain.

[Dan LCFC]

He will always have the finishing but he's definitely lost something recently.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

My old man is convinced he’s gone as a top level striker. I’m not so sure, he’s had slumps before and come back strong.

 

In JV we trust!

[Buce]

 

I think he's well aware things aren't right, hence his petulant attack on the hoardings last night. Pure frustration.

 

His body language says it all - he looks really pissed off.

[daddylonglegs]

2 hours ago, Wasyls Pec Deck said:

My old man is convinced he’s gone as a top level striker. I’m not so sure, he’s had slumps before and come back strong.

 

In JV we trust!

Absolutely. 

He's even come back from injuries before. I think he's certainly owed the benefit of the doubt that he can come back and be at the level he was at the start of the season. 

 

It may even be that he continues to underperform until next season. We don't have an option other than to play him, so we've got to just get behind him. 

[Flappit]

Blindly saying "he's had bad spells before so will bounce back" is wishful thinking. He may well have a few more good spells, but the change and decline in him is obvious to all but those with the bluest tined spectacles.  One day he *won't* bounce back. Maybe this time, maybe next time, but sooner rather than later that will happen, you cannot hold off aging no matter how much you wish for it. The old adage of "he needs a goal" is very true in this case and should hopefully help him regain the confidence he needs to finish the season strongly. THEN we have the problem of replacing him, as that has to happen this summer.

[jeffschlupp]

Will people stop talking about replacing him or signing competition this summer, as though it's that urgent?

 

What top quality young player who's banging goals in across Europe or the Championship is going to want to come here if Vardy gets back to his best between now and May? You are going to be looking at second rate players, and they are going to be no better than Iheanacho.

 

You can have succession plans in areas where there are an abundance of players on the market, like full-back (Justin to Chilwell) or centre-back (Soyuncu to Maguire). But strikers that score lots of goals are so few and far between, that all of them should be starting every week for someone half decent.

 

Vardy is here for another 2 years after this season. The club perhaps need an alternative option to Iheanacho, but they will not get genuine 'competition' for Vardy before he goes or regresses to a point of being ineffective, just like they won't for Schmeichel.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

Also as well in this new style of football he won’t be as effective as he was when we relied so heavily on counter attacking.

 

Don’t write him off just yet.

[filbertway]

 I am in awe at the denial on show, fair play lads.

[Dahnsouff]

4 hours ago, jeffschlupp said:

Will people stop talking about replacing him or signing competition this summer, as though it's that urgent?

 

...

Sorry,  it is urgent. We need another option, Vardy’s trajectory WILL be downwards as time progresses and no amount of sentimentality will alter that. We cannot be waiting for him to be bad enough to get someone who is better than this broken Vardy. It is not about replacing the man,  its the position.

 

It is a super difficult position to recruit for, especially now as there will be several looking, but it just cannot wait.

[Fox92]

15 minutes ago, filbertway said:

 I am in awe at the denial on show, fair play lads.

12 goals, 7th top goalscorer in the division, ain't bad is it.

 

He's just had an operation and I believe that's still affecting him. Sometimes when the camera focuses on him he looks like he's still struggling.

 

Once he's back to being fully fit he'll be fine and scoring consistently again.

 

Oh, and the service to him last night was woeful. Aside from that he's been doing okay. Maybe if he had players closer to him he'd have more of the ball.

[Ric Flair]

Some of you don't deserve Jamie Vardy. Never ever question the GOAT. Can play until he's 60 as far as I'm concerned and never score again, but we all know he'll knock 20 in this season still and some of you prats will frantically delete some of this drivel.

[Flappit]

2 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

12 goals, 7th top goalscorer in the division, ain't bad is it.

 

He's just had an operation and I believe that's still affecting him. Sometimes when the camera focuses on him he looks like he's still struggling.

 

Once he's back to being fully fit he'll be fine and scoring consistently again.

 

Oh, and the service to him last night was woeful. Aside from that he's been doing okay. Maybe if he had players closer to him he'd have more of the ball.

So many of those goals were penalties. If you're unable to look past what is obvious when watching games recently, then there's little to debate. It does seem a bit desperate to continue to hope that somehow Vardy can defy aging and continue to rely on what made him stand out so much - acceleration and pace. He very obviously has lost both and to try to deny it is a bit daft really.  Like I say, I think he still has some goals in him, but he's only heading one way now.

[Fox92]

4 minutes ago, Flappit said:

So many of those goals were penalties. If you're unable to look past what is obvious when watching games recently, then there's little to debate. It does seem a bit desperate to continue to hope that somehow Vardy can defy aging and continue to rely on what made him stand out so much - acceleration and pace. He very obviously has lost both and to try to deny it is a bit daft really.  Like I say, I think he still has some goals in him, but he's only heading one way now.

Of course he's only going to go one way, he's 34, and it was ridiculous we headed into this season with a 33 going on 34 year old as our main striker. I still think he's not fully fit though and he still worries defenders just having him up top. We need to get a replacement for him though, someone with genuine quality too because it's not easy replacing someone who scores 15+ goals a season for us.

[Dahnsouff]

19 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Some of you don't deserve Jamie Vardy. Never ever question the GOAT. Can play until he's 60 as far as I'm concerned and never score again, but we all know he'll knock 20 in this season still and some of you prats will frantically delete some of this drivel.

Come on Ric, stop being so binary. He is arguably our greatest ever player and his legacy will be in diminished no matter what happens from here on out. I have no doubt he will score the 20 you mention this season, but it needs to stop being a flogging offence for looking for additional forward reinforcements.

[foxfanazer]

24 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Some of you don't deserve Jamie Vardy. Never ever question the GOAT. Can play until he's 60 as far as I'm concerned and never score again, but we all know he'll knock 20 in this season still and some of you prats will frantically delete some of this drivel.

It's nothing short of a disgrace to be quite honest 

[cruzFOX]

What I see missing in Vardy at the moment is his mental sharpness. In the past even in games when he’s had scraps he’s stayed focused in games till the end just waiting to pounce on a defensive mistake or space for him to turn and run into. Yes he’s not had a lot of service but he’s had some chances and his first touch has let him down on occasion. For any other ordinary striker that can be frequently forgiven but Vardy has set an extraordinary standard for himself. Maybe we have to accept like him that some of the magic is wearing off naturally. All we can do is support him and root for him. I want him to finish strong till the day he retires. The pressure he’s feeling is not being able to chip in with the goals at the moment when our team so desperately needs it.

[Ric Flair]

32 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Come on Ric, stop being so binary. He is arguably our greatest ever player and his legacy will be in diminished no matter what happens from here on out. I have no doubt he will score the 20 you mention this season, but it needs to stop being a flogging offence for looking for additional forward reinforcements.

This isn't about next season or the future, this is about now. Being written off as if he's now finally past it. Like he was past it when he came back from the World Cup in 2018 and Puel started claiming Demarai Gray was a genuine heir to his throne, then again in early 2020 when time had finally caught up with Vardy and it was the end of the road.

 

I don't deny he's immune to aging and his game is now somewhat different to being played in with 40 yards on goal when he would win any foot race even from a few yards behind, but what we as a club have done under Rodgers is look at what he is still exceptional at and exploit that, which is why he has scored something obscene like 45 goals under Rodgers in 2 years.

 

Right now he's in a poor spell, his goals from open play is less than the previous few seasons on the face of it, but don't dismiss the amount of assists or goals he's forced such as the two own goals in back to back games vs Spurs and Man Utd. He's come back from this injury lay off and looked iffy, where as even though the goals had dried up in late December and January he was still being an absolute menace to the opposition.

 

I just have to laugh at seeing the same reactionary muff that's been quickly spouted every time he's had a lean spell, the one player you'd think our fans would have learned to give the utmost respect and benefit of the doubt to but they still can't because one day they will be right and that makes it right and OK to do it now. You could even go back to 2015/16 when he didn't score from early December to late January and the same norris's will have been questioning him.

 

Vardy is Leicester, he's been that pivotal here for so long that I don't even know what this club is without him and quite frankly I'm scared to find out. 

 

This is the greatest player ever to play for us, there will never be a bigger icon than him. Let him go out on his shield, he's got a lot more to give this season at the very least. 

 

This summer it is essential we get a striker capable of leading the line for us but Vardy will still be top boy and may be used as an impact player at certain times, wouldn't be surprised to see him become one of the most lethal subs the PL has seen since Solkskjaer. He's gold.

[Beachyboy]

There will be a new striker signed in the summer, but take Man utd for example they sign Cavani, regarded as one of the top strikers in Europe, hes been there nearly 6 months and is only now starting to start games regularly, I'd expect a similar transition with Leicester and Vardy, he has 2 years left, someone will be signed in the summer, but it could be this time next year before that signing is competing for a place, probably missed a trick by not loaning out Kramaric rather then selling him.

[volpeazzurro]

5 hours ago, jeffschlupp said:

Will people stop talking about replacing him or signing competition this summer, as though it's that urgent?

 

What top quality young player who's banging goals in across Europe or the Championship is going to want to come here if Vardy gets back to his best between now and May? You are going to be looking at second rate players, and they are going to be no better than Iheanacho.

 

You can have succession plans in areas where there are an abundance of players on the market, like full-back (Justin to Chilwell) or centre-back (Soyuncu to Maguire). But strikers that score lots of goals are so few and far between, that all of them should be starting every week for someone half decent.

 

Vardy is here for another 2 years after this season. The club perhaps need an alternative option to Iheanacho, but they will not get genuine 'competition' for Vardy before he goes or regresses to a point of being ineffective, just like they won't for Schmeichel.

There needs to be competition because even if Vardy was at the top of his game, if we got into the Champions League next season, he can't play every Premiership, Cup and European match can he. It will be imperative next year that we challenge for top four again and we can't do that with effectively one striker. 

[Carl the Llama]

43 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Come on Ric, stop being so binary. He is arguably our greatest ever player and his legacy will be in diminished no matter what happens from here on out. I have no doubt he will score the 20 you mention this season, but it needs to stop being a flogging offence for looking for additional forward reinforcements.

So much easier said than done though, isn't it?  We all want that, but we also have to be realistic.  I would be gobsmacked if the lack of a solid Vardy backup was for lack of trying.  Fact is to achieve the club's ambitions we want a backup striker with the sort of quality to become a nailed on starter for a Champions League level team in the near future.  Who fits that criteria and would have been happy to join us in the past couple of seasons where we haven't been competing in the CL and Vardy's been in prime form?