The 28-year-old Leicester City star equalled Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in 10 successive league games in his team’s 3-0 whitewash over Newcastle yesterday, November 21, at St James’ park. That is the best run by any player I have managed.
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He added: “Full credit to both teams, and Leicester are the story of the season so far”.
The pre-match talk had been dominated by talk of Vardy, and given the way United started the game, it seemed only a matter of time before he scored.
On the afternoon, it was goals from Jamie Vardy, Leonardo Ulloa and Shinji Okazaki that swung the tie in the Midlanders’ favour but Ranieri has made a decision to praise his whole squad.
Leicester City forward Jamie Vardy has regular cryotherapy treatment and analyses defenders’ weaknesses before matches.
These days, players do not normally reach the top after being convicted of assault, placed under police curfew with an electronic tag to monitor their movements and by playing for minor league clubs like Stocksbridge Park Steels, Halifax and Fleetwood Town. We have had good games which we didn’t win, but it was disappointing (against Leicester). “We can only play and see what happens”.
“La Marseillaise”, France’s national anthem, was played before kick-off at Vicarage Road in a gesture that was repeated ahead of all of Saturday’s Premier League matches.
“If a manager wants you to play in a position you play there”.
While Vardy still has a long way to go before he can dream of emulating former England captain Gary Lineker, his rise through the tiers of English football has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Ranieri says he has experienced a similar goalscoring feat during his lengthy managerial career but hoped Vardy will continue his historic purple patch. “They’ve literally just been working on me constantly”.
In the Championship, England Under-21s keeper Jordan Pickford scored an unfortunate own goal to give Blackburn the lead in Preston North End’s Lancashire derby at Deepdale, before failing to keep out a penalty just after half time as Rovers got a 2-1 win. “It doesn’t look like things have improved much with them since I left either”. The “tika-taka” passing method of Barcelona, however, suggests that Vardy may not be as potent for the Catalans as it would take a few getting used to for the Englishman, who is used to playing counter attacking football for Leicester City.
“I’ve matched his (Van Nistelrooy’s) record and we have got the three points and a clean sheet”.
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“I think that’s our worst performance of the season”, he said.
