Louis van Gaal has defended Manchester United skipper Wayne Rooney and claimed the striker is justifying his place.
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“He was already a very nasty player for us previous year”, Van Gaal said of Vardy.
Rooney and his fellow United forwards have only nine league goals to their credit and they drew a blank again in midweek with a 0-0 draw against PSV Eindhoven that left them in danger of missing out of the Champions League knockout stages.
“But in England, because of the quality of the teams and because every team has the money to buy players – and they have bought players – the difference in the Premier League between clubs is not so high, so it’s possible I think”.
This has the makings of a game not to miss and we will all remember the action packed fixture between the sides from last season which ended 5-3 to Leicester. Striker Jamie Vardy has been the undoubted star of their fairytale run, with the man who was playing in non-league less than five years ago having equaled the Premier League record held by former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy in scoring in 10 successive games.
“I see a very well organised side and players don’t move out of their positions very much”.
This will likely be the foremost question on the minds of Manchester United coaching staff. Vardy has scored all his goals from inside the box, where he has a 30% success rate, with 3.7 attempts per game.
“I only know for example Dennis Bergkamp as a player who did the same with Ajax”.
Manchester United will travel to the King Power Stadium hoping to garner all three points and top the table, but the Red Devils will have to show a scoring spree if they want a favorable result.
“In the first half we were the better team and created a few decent chances, and maybe were unlucky not to come in at the break one up”. Then we can not train.
“In the third or fourth phase we have to create more, but it is hard because you have seen where Leicester City stand on the pitch – it was in the 60 metre area”.
In the two meetings between the sides last season, there were 12 goals scored.
United have now dropped to third in the league, and will be overtaken by Arsenal should they win at Norwich on Sunday afternoon.
“When Sir Alex Ferguson was at the helm there was a clear style and identity but we also gave them the freedom to come up with their own solutions”.
“We believe there are many more Jamie Vardys out there”. We are top of league and in this moment we deserve this.
“I don’t think anybody has expected that [Leicester to be top], even Leicester themselves”.
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He said: “He is ready to break it. If Jamie breaks the record he will break the record”.
