Was Michael Owen right all along about Jamie Vardy?
When Michael Owen said recently Jamie Vardy was “not a natural goalscorer” it was labelled hyperbole by many, but could he be right?
Owen, in his role as BT Sport pundit, has failed to bridge the gap from playing to punditry and the countless spoof ‘Michael Owen says’ pages on Twitter account for that. But his comments on Leicester striker Vardy may at least be valid after the striker again drew a blank in the 2-1 defeat to Sunderland.
In October the former Liverpool striker said: “I wouldn’t class Vardy as a natural goalscorer, when he gets in front of goal it’s often head down hit is as hard as you can.
“Vardy’s been on some great runs but he’s quite a streaky player even though he can score continuously as he broke the record last season.”
And last month ahead of Leicester’s Champions League date with Copenhagen, Owen reinforced his belief: “Even when he was scoring loads of goals last season he wasn’t convincing me as a natural finisher.”
And Owen might well be the wise one this time after Vardy made it 16 club games without a goal in the 2-1 defeat to Sunderland.
This time last year Vardy had a flavour of crisps named after him – ‘Vardy Salted’ – after securing his name in history after scoring in 11 consecutive Premier League games. His amazing story registered in Hollywood and will be made into a film, which is expected to be released in 2017.
But things have turned sour, if that’s the correct word for a former non-league footballer, who recently signed a £100,000 a week contract extension with the champions. Vardy is not the force he was last season, and Leicester have struggled to repeat their heroics from last term.
After hitting 24 goals en route to the Premier League title in 2015/16, Arsenal came knocking for the 29-year-old and he looked destined to sign for Arsene Wenger’s men. Vardy had a medical after Arsenal triggered £20million release clause in the player’s contract, but while on England duty Vardy performed a U-turn and less than two weeks later he had signed a new four-year deal at the King Power for a six-figure weekly sum.
Since then though things have not gone according to plan for Vardy, who has gone through barren scoring runs in the past. In 2014/15 under Nigel Pearson the striker went six months without a goal as Leicester fought off relegation from the Premier League.
Jamie Vardy has now gone 697 minutes of Premier League action without having a single shot on target. pic.twitter.com/XNP5skkykq
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) December 3, 2016
In 2012/13 when Leicester were in the Championship the former Fleetwood man scored just once in the final 20 games of the season, so it’s a predicament that he has found himself in before. But this season the spotlight has fallen on him simply because of efforts last season.
Twelve months ago Vardy lined up against Swansea looking to make 12 scoring games in a row – that did not happen and it was the end of his miraculous run, but what has changed this season.
Watford striker Troy Deeney highlighted the problem Vardy is facing: “Now teams are defending deep against them from the start, to deal with the threat of Vardy’s pace, and letting Leicester have possession.”
To negate Vardy’s biggest attribute – his pace – teams are defending deep against Leicester and almost retreating to the edge of their own box, allowing Vardy the ball in front of them but not allowing him to gallop in behind.
Only once this season has been able to collect a pass and run past a defence – against Swansea under Francesco Guidolin – when he raced on to a long ball from Danny Drinkwater to score.
Leicester captain Wes Morgan said: “Perhaps other teams are looking at how they can keep Vards and Riyad quiet, because if they can, they think they’ve got a good chance of getting a result against Leicester.
“But he’s definitely the same old Jamie Vardy. Obviously things haven’t gone the way he would have wanted in front of goal but he’ll keep going.”
His stats though this season make pretty woeful ready and his England place under Gareth Southgate is most definitely in jeopardy, despite scoring an exquisite diving header in the 2-2 draw with Spain last month.
Vardy has scored just two Premier League goals, managed just 17 shots, of which just four have been on target, while he has carved out just nine scoring chances. Compare that to last season after the 14-game mark when he had scored 14 goals, made 55 shots of which 26 were on target and had made 19 chances – then the difference is startling.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Riyad Mahrez has still only completed one pass to Jamie Vardy in the league since September 17.
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) November 26, 2016
Such were the efforts of Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, who won the PFA player of the season award, both were nominated for the coveted Ballon d’Or, alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Vardy’s onfield relationship with Mahrez last season was phenomenal with the pair contributing to 63 of Leicester’s 81 points. In fact their dynamic duo between them scored 41 goals and made 17 assists.
This time last year Vardy had already been the recipient of four assists courtesy of Mahrez. This season the two seem to be on very separate wave lengths because the frontman has received only four passes, never mind assists, from Mahrez since September 17.
That has had a major effect of Vardy’s goals output, but a trawl through the history books also tells you that Vardy has not been prolific throughout his rise up the football pyramid. Only three times has he hit 20 goals or more in a season – with one of those being his decorated efforts of last term.
The other two occasions were in 2010/11 when he fired 26 goals for Halifax Town in the Northern Premier Division and then two years later for Fleetwood, when he bagged 34 which attracted the attention of Leicester who signed him for a non-league record £1million.
Can a goalscorer have a record of that nature? Owen, who incidentally had five seasons with Liverpool where he scored 20 goals plus, certainly doesn’t think so and he might just be correct.
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