Leicester City’s newest goalscorer is also their greatest – but there are more reasons to believe Jamie Vardy is crucial to Enzo Maresca’s plan than his ability to stroke a penalty into the top corner.
Someone in Jamie Vardy’s life – whether his agent, someone in the club’s communications department, or possibly Vardy himself – decided a year or two into his Leicester City career that it was time to make his post-match interviews a little less colorful and a little more deadly dull.
Suddenly, practically every response was a variation on the theme of getting back on the practice field and how the three points were the most essential thing.
It was immediately evident to those of us who follow Leicester passionately, merely because it contradicted all we know about Vardy’s mentality. He’s the life and soul of the training ground he’s always so desperate to return to, the Skittles Vodka-drinking, Spiderman suit-wearing life and soul of the training ground he’s always so desperate to return to. He’s the defender-needling, opposing-goading livewire who is essential to getting those three points every week.
Nonetheless, the balance was most likely critical to his overall image. While some of Vardy’s antics make headlines, such as his Adebayor-esque rush to the away end on Saturday, the image someone like Enzo Maresca must have formed of Vardy before to assuming the Leicester City job this summer probably had little to do with rustling or shithousing.
A plus, not a disadvantage
Maresca was well aware that he was inheriting not only an all-time club legend, but also someone who had given his idol, Pep Guardiola, several issues. He was also inheriting the type of charisma and presence that he would have seen as a benefit rather than a hindrance.
Because Jamie Vardy has always been regarded as a source of contention. We’ve even had to remind our own fans to respect him.
The issue has always been how Leicester City could ever replace him. Several managers have questioned if Kelechi Iheanacho is capable of doing so. Patson Daka was considered as “the new Vardy” by Brendan Rodgers. On one memorable occasion at Wembley four and a half years ago, Claude Puel even attempted to make the switch to Demarai Gray.
And, by all accounts, Maresca undoubtedly intended Joel Piroe to lead the line for the new-look Leicester City. But Maresca certainly has a devilish side that reminds me of Vardy, and the two appear to complement each other.
Managerial press briefings are now deceptively frank, as evidenced by the Wanya Marcal case. When asked if it was difficult to drop Marcal after his first goal for the club, Maresca replied, “I don’t care.” “I’ve come to make a decision.”
Obviously, if you’re winning every week, you can say whatever you want. But it was the kind of comment that reflected Vardy’s great personality power and commitment to the cause of the club more than any other manager since Claudio Ranieri. The implication, like with Vardy’s post-match platitudes, was “this isn’t about me, it’s about the club.”
Leicester’s new role as opposition-appointed championship favourites has already been alluded to by Enzo Maresca – there to be shot at, despite the fact that we didn’t concede many shots on Saturday. He understands better than anyone the importance of having the correct level of self-confidence in this situation, of having players who can puff their chest out without thinking about the pressure.
With the acquisition of Conor Coady and Harry Winks this summer, he brought in two of those kinds. Despite the club’s leadership issues last season, he knew he had another in his arsenal.
Vardy’s role
There has been an appropriate focus in recent years on whether Vardy can adapt to possession football, which he demonstrated during the best of Rodgers’ tenure, but there is a sense at the present that what he contributes as an all-round package takes precedence over his tactical position.
This is due in part to the fact that the importance of the center-forward position at Leicester City Football Club is arguably at an all-time low.
It’s a difficult job on occasion – Iheanacho was harshly chastised for not holding the ball up against Norwich when he was essentially asked to control a succession of 50-yard skimmers from Mads Hermansen with a robust centre-back all over him and few passing alternatives. And it’s not always a job at all. The ball simply does not arrive at your feet, and you do not receive the series of opportunities that we had all expected to fall to Vardy, Iheanacho, and Daka against less prominent opponents.
Almost all of the players around Vardy are either new, young, or learning to play in very different roles – so having someone like him up front is likely to be quite crucial, regardless of his appropriateness to the general approach.
TFW’s correspondent, James Knight, who was slightly closer to the dugout on Saturday, noticed Vardy came over to the touchline to speak with Maresca shortly before Kasey McAteer was introduced in place of Abdul Fatawu – possibly to pass on that we needed to press the ball more effectively at that point in the game. This is the type of in-game intelligence that neutrals may not connect with Vardy, but that we know he possesses.
We’re in ultimate luxury territory here, to some extent. We have four strikers who should be too excellent for the league, and it doesn’t really matter which of them plays because the entire approach and quality of our squad is so good that the goals have looked almost inevitable at times.
In that regard, the Championship has been relatively easy going thus far. We know it’s not true, and there will be more bumps along the way.
So what we really need are players who would not accept complacency and will hold each of the young players to high standards. Players who look forward to getting back on the practice field and understand that the next three points are crucial.
NOW READ: Leicester City 1 Bristol City 0: Jamie Vardy, what a finale!
About The Author
Leave a Reply