Leicester City have once again been making waves in the Premier League this season. Many have been praising manager Brendan Rodgers for revitalising the Foxes ever since he took charge at King Power Stadium last February. Of course, he deserves all the plaudits coming his way. However, the club wouldn’t be in their current position without a talismanic striker who can score a ton of goals – and that role goes to their veteran striker Jamie Vardy.
It’s hard to believe that Vardy is already 32 and still active and in peak condition. Marco Van Basten retired at age 31. More so, Eric Cantona was already two years retired by 32. But for Vardy, the party is just getting started.
The England international’s amazing scoring form has propelled the Foxes to second in the table with 39 points from eighteen games. They will remain second in the league at Christmas, despite losing to defending champions Manchester City 3-1 on Saturday at the Etihad – it’s still getting the punters at online-betting.org excited
Indeed, the Sheffield-born Vardy has been in incredible form this season, scoring 17 goals and notching 3 assists in a span of just 18 games. That’s a goal every 95 minutes!
There aren’t many players aged similar to Vardy who can pull off the same performances. In Europe’ top five leagues so far this season, only 31-year-old Robert Lewandowski from the Bundesliga (19 goals) and 29-year-old Ciro Immobile from the Italian Serie A (17 goals) come close to Vardy’s goal numbers. Even the ethereal Lionel Messi has only managed 13 league goals so far during this campaign.
With such performances, it’s no wonder his manager couldn’t drop him this season, and gaffer Brendan Rodgers has nothing but praise for his choice striker.
“For me, [having Vardy] is like having two players up front because of his work and his threat,” Rodgers said in a press conference in November.
“People sometimes ask me, ‘Why don’t you play with two strikers?’ Well, when you have the likes of [Vardy] and Luis Suarez, who I had at Liverpool, it’s like having two,” the Northern Irish manager added.
Vardy’s work rate may well set him a new personal record this season. As things stand, he is the most accurate striker in Europe. So far, he has scored 39% of his shots. That’s better than Lionel Messi, whose shot accuracy so far this season is only 30.8%.
“He’s too good, he’s ridiculous,” said former Republic of Ireland striker Clinton Morrison.
“He gets quicker and quicker at 32 years of age. Vardy is a superb player. Under Brendan Rodgers he’s getting better and better,” Morrison added.
The question now, of course, is if Vardy can keep up the pace, especially now that he has played and started in every game for Leicester this campaign. With fears that Vardy could lose steam as the season wears on, there is pressure on Rodgers to rest his key player in a couple of games to keep him fresh.
“No chance [Vardy can keep up with starting very game],” Rodgers lamented.
“We can’t have the same team playing every single game, because we want to keep the energy in the team as much as we can,” the Leicester manager added.
Can Vardy keep up his blistering form this season and push his club to more unprecedented glory, just like their title win four seasons ago? Leicester fans around the world will certainly hope so.