EPL

Vardy is Leicester's 'best ever' as Iheanacho goes from strength to strength

By Sports Desk May 17, 2021

Jamie Vardy will be remembered as Leicester City's greatest ever player, according to his former team-mate Andy King.

Vardy's goals fired Leicester to an unforgettable Premier League title triumph in 2015-16, when he was named the FWA Footballer of the Year and went on to play and score for England at Euro 2016.

While the likes of Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante went on to seek pastures new, Vardy remained as the Foxes' talisman and on Saturday added the club's first FA Cup to their maiden top-flight title when Youri Tielemans' thunderbolt sunk Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley.

The 34-year-old's fairy tale ascent from non-league football has been well documented and, with 116 goals, he lies 19th on the Premier League's all-time goalscorers list.

Vardy will have his eye on climbing a few more places yet, as he is under contract to Leicester until 2023. When the time comes for him to move on, Wales international King believes there will be a virtually impossible void to fill.

"Everyone wants to know what the secret is or what he's like," King told Stats Perform.

"But he has no secret over things which he does. You guys know that because he's been telling everyone he drinks his coffee, drinks his Red Bull, he eats what he wants and then he goes out and scores two goals and runs around like a madman.

"What you see is what you get with him. Like with Wes [Morgan] and Kasper [Schmeichel], first and foremost he has great affection for the club, the people at the club and the owner.

"He's such a good guy to have in the changing room and to have off the pitch as well.

"The hole is going to be massive when he leaves Leicester. I think he's Leicester's best ever player. And that's before adding another trophy to the collection.

"He'll be a hard one to try replace when Leicester have to do that at some point."

On the other hand, Vardy's goalscoring mantle has arguably already passed, with the veteran playing a supporting role to the prolific Kelechi Iheanacho.

Vardy's 13 goals in the Premier League this term represent a joint-lowest return since he hit the same number in 2016-17, comfortably below the 23 he netted to win the Golden Boot last term.

But his nine assists represent a career best in the competition, matching his total from the past two years combined.

This can, in part, be attributed to a slightly altered role supporting Iheanacho in a 3-5-2 system - their lethal striker partnership taking Leicester to the brink of Champions League qualification, which can be secured in Tuesday's rematch with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The former Manchester City striker scored 20 times in all competitions across his previous three seasons at the King Power Stadium but he has exploded into life this time around, with 18 to his name.

Thirteen of those have come in his past 13 matches and King believes the 24-year-old's patience over the course of a lengthy acclimatisation process has been rewarded with more than just a new contract until 2024.

"When he first came in, he was in and out of the team," he said. "It must be hard adapting from Man City to go into another team where you're not going to get the chances laid on a plate for you and you're not going to have the ball for 80 per cent of the game. You've got to learn to do the other stuff as well.

"Kel was a really honest guy, he was trying really hard to learn the system. To start with, Leicester played a 4-3-3 with only one striker and Vards is always going to play.

"They changed the system when Harvey Barnes got injured, which was a big loss because he was playing really well. I don't know if Brendan said to him, 'Look, I'm going to go to a 3-5-2 and you're going to be my second striker, you know you're going to play'.

"If that was the case, he certainly rewarded the manager because for the second half of the season he has been absolutely outstanding. He's carrying Leicester at a moment to the top four, scoring goals when no one else was and his all-round play has always been good.

"Like, anyone when they're playing with confidence and knowing they're going to play the next game, it all falls into place. Strikers go on a hot streak and he's certainly on one of those at the moment."

Related items

  • Chelsea reach Champions League semi-finals as draw with Ajax secures progress Chelsea reach Champions League semi-finals as draw with Ajax secures progress

    Chelsea reached the Champions League semi-finals for the fifth time in their history after a 1-1 draw with Ajax at Stamford Bridge secured a comfortable 4-1 aggregate victory.

    The Blues entered the evening already 3-0 ahead from their first-leg victory in Amsterdam and further eased any tension when Mayra Ramirez netted her first Champions League goal to open the scoring after 33 minutes in west London.

    It came after a nervy start for the hosts, who narrowly avoided conceding from a first-half mishap before Chasity Grant drew Ajax level with one of few chances after the break.

    Chelsea will face the winners of the last-eight clash between holders Barcelona and Norwegian side Brann, who play their quarter-final second leg tomorrow night.

    Emma Hayes made seven changes from the side that beat West Ham in the Women’s Super League on Sunday, while 16-year-old Ajax midfielder Lily Yohannes, called up to the US women’s national team on Tuesday, served a suspension after picking up her third yellow card of the competition in the first leg.

    Ajax captain Sherida Spitse nodded onto the roof of Zecira Musovic’s net from a short corner at the beginning of the first half.

    Erin Cuthbert, wearing the captain’s armband for the hosts, skimmed the edge of the post with an effort, before Ashley Lawrence made perhaps the wrong decision when she might have had a shot of her own, instead unable to find the sliding Aggie Beever-Jones with a cross.

    There were also missed opportunities for Ajax. First Romee Leuchter dragged an effort wide before the Blues survived a nervy incident when Musovic crashed her clearance against Tiny Hoekstra and gratefully watched as it rolled inches wide.

    Chelsea had multiple chances to do it sooner but finally opened the scoring in the 33rd minute when Guro Reiten slipped Ramirez through and the Colombian obliged with a low finish through the legs of crouching Ajax keeper Regina van Eijk.

    Jonna van de Velde looked to level, firing just over, and while Chelsea enjoyed a surge of chances before the break it was Ajax who looked most likely to score when Leuchter sent an effort across the face of goal on the stroke of half-time.

    Leuchter threatened again, forcing Musovic into a low save after the restart, one of the only chances for either side until Hoekstra played through Grant, who drew the sides level when she fooled Musovic with a low finish in the 65th minute.

    It took a brilliant block from Musovic to claw away another Leuchter effort and Ajax kept the Chelsea keeper busy to the end.

    Musovic denied substitute Danique Tolhoek’s attempt as the Blues – who had their own late chances – secured safe passage to the final four. 

  • Steph Houghton: England’s ‘icon’ who has led the way for women’s football Steph Houghton: England’s ‘icon’ who has led the way for women’s football

    Steph Houghton hopes she leaves the game “in a better place than when I started” and few could disagree that she has achieved just that.

    The significant contribution she made will be recognised far beyond her 2016 MBE for achievements in women’s football.

    After she announced that this season will be her last as a player, current Manchester City coach Gareth Taylor described her as “without question, an icon of the game”, while England wrote: “From leading the Lionesses to growing the women’s game – your impact will never be forgotten. A true icon.”

    Houghton’s haul of eight major trophies with City – four Continental Cups, three Women’s FA Cups and the FA Women’s Super League title – makes her the club’s most decorated player.

    But she also won the WSL twice with Arsenal, along with two FA Cups and three WSL Cups. In addition she has 121 England caps, having announced her international retirement last summer having failed to make Sarina Wiegman’s World Cup squad.

    She is a bona fide England great but it was with Great Britain that the Durham native made her breakthrough as a star of the women’s game as she announced herself on the world stage at the 2012 London Olympics, scoring three times – including a winner against Brazil in front of a Wembley crowd of 70,000 – despite playing left-back.

    It represented quite the turnaround for a player who had sat out the 2007 World Cup and 2009 European Championship with a broken leg and cruciate knee injuries respectively, a curse which was to strike again most painfully when she missed England’s historic triumph on home soil at Euro 2022 after surgery on an Achilles problem.

    But, despite those setbacks, Houghton’s international career had its high points, captaining the Lionesses to a third-place finish at the 2015 World Cup and two subsequent major tournament semi-finals, reaching a century of England appearances and playing at another Olympics.

    She was more successful, and less unfortunate, at club level as having progressed from Sunderland to Leeds in 2007, she made the move to Arsenal in 2010 and quickly started collecting silverware.

    Initially a full-back with a keen eye for goal she would go on to be regarded as one of the finest centre-backs in the world and also a great leader, having captained Arsenal and City and assuming the Lionesses armband ahead of the 2015 World Cup.

    But there was more international heartbreak to come in 2019 as she missed a late penalty in the 2-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to the United States having only been told on the day of the game she was assuming responsibilities from Nikita Parris.

    She captained GB at her second Olympics, the 2021 Tokyo Games, but it was to be her last major tournament as the Achilles injury knocked her out of the reckoning for the 2022 Euros as a new England era began under Wiegman.

    Away from the pitch, Houghton is married to former Bradford and Liverpool defender Stephen Darby, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2018.

    Houghton has taken part in a host of fundraising activities, including running 100 kilometres in aid of her husband’s charity – Darby Rimmer MND Foundation – in 2020 and last week brought her Man City team-mates to join him and former Ipswich striker Marcus Stewart, who also has the disease, at the end of a ‘March of the Day’ from Bradford to Liverpool.

    Houghton, 36 in April, will have the chance to end her career on a high with City level on points with WSL leaders Chelsea with five matches remaining.

  • On track: Hallgrimsson says CNL performance a positive step towards World Cup qualification On track: Hallgrimsson says CNL performance a positive step towards World Cup qualification

    With an historic third-place finish at the Concacaf Nations League now out the way, Jamaica’s senior Reggae Boyz Head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson is hoping they can ride the momentum to an even bigger accomplishment, which is to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

    Though Hallgrimsson would have preferred the 2023/24 CNL title, as opposed to the bronze they secured with a 1-0 win over Panama, he believes the achievement represents a step in the right direction on their quest to add to the country’s 1998 World Cup feat.

    “This is just a part of our journey. We were trying to build something for this tournament as there is a saying that ‘success is not a destination, success is not a date, it’s a continuous journey to the right direction’. So, we’re just working on improving this team, as our biggest goal at the moment is to try to reach the World Cup finals,” Hallgrimsson declared. 

    Jamaica’s third-place battle followed a heartbreaking 3-1 extra-time loss to United States in an entertaining semi-final contest that they led from the very first minute, but lost after Corey Burke’s last-gasped own-goal brought the opponents back into the game.

    Still, Hallgrimsson took the positives from the tournament, as he pointed to the psychologically importance and confidence gained heading into the prestigious CONMEBOL Copa America, which also serves as part of the Reggae Boyz preparation for the World Cup qualifiers.

    “This is a good step to play important matches, to play big tournaments, and to play strong opponents like the United States and Panama. They are two of the three highest-ranked Concacaf teams and we showed that we are closing in on this gap, even with the number of players not with us. So, I have to give a lot of credit to the players for the way they presented themselves for Jamaica,” Hallgrimsson said.

    “I think it’s psychological just to know that we can face these teams of this calibre. Again, talking about missing players, I normally don’t talk about missing players, but it gives belief in what we are doing, and I think that is the biggest benefit for us,” he added.

    Those benefits which Hallgrimsson alluded to, includes the fact that player such as Leon Bailey, Ethan Pinnock, Amari’i Bell, Demarai Gray, Michail Antonio and Shamar Nicholson all missed the nail-biting United States encounter. However, Gray and Nicholson played their part in the Panama win after returning from red card suspensions.

    For the Icelandic tactician, the absence of key players provided the opportunity for other to not only show their worth, but also to stake a claim on spots for the Copa America and World Cup qualifying squads. Interestingly enough, it was full-backs Greg Leigh and Dexter Lembikisa that got Jamaica's goals across the two games.

    “This camp has given us more depth in the squad, players really punched in and showed that they want to belong into this starting lineup. Jamaica is richer after this camp,” Hallgrimsson noted.

    “Tactics, it was both because we were missing players and playing good teams so we thought it would be better to play with three at the back. Given that we played 120 minutes (against United States) it was a really good performance, a solid performance from the team so I’m happy,” he ended.

    Jamaica is scheduled to face Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela in Group B of the June 20 to July 14 Copa America, while Dominican Republic, Dominica, Guatemala and British Virgin Islands are their Group E opponents for the World Cup qualifiers, also scheduled to begin in June.

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.