This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
He’s taking an awfully big risk with a move like this.
After winning the title back in 2015/16, Jamie Vardy has arguably become one of the biggest names in the history of Leicester City, and according to his boss Brendan Rodgers, he could become an even bigger name yet.
What’s he said?
Speaking in his press conference yesterday, Rodgers spoke about how, despite being the upper side of 30, fans shouldn’t be worrying about his performances dropping:
“His best years will be here and if you look at him now there are still a few more to go yet. He’s still so sharp, clinical and fit – he’ll be 33 in January but he looks after his body.”
Time to call for the cavalry
The problem with a comment like this is that it makes it sound like Leicester are going to be relying on him for the foreseeable future. Which is all well and good, but it does make you worry whether or not they are perhaps putting too much pressure on his shoulders and relying on him too much to carry the load of the entire team?
If you take a look at his numbers so far this season (via Transfermarkt), his goals account for 37% of the total goals that the Foxes have scored this season, which puts him sixth in the league in terms of his contribution to a team’s total goals.
His next closest in terms of contributor in the Leicester team is James Maddison with 11.1% of the team’s goals, placing 71st in the league.
This is a huge drop off in terms of production across the board at the King Power, which puts them in a rather difficult position. Do they keep relying on Vardy to keep coming up with the goods and hope that he stays injury/suspension free? Or do they get him some help?
It looks as if they’re going down the latter route with reports coming in linking them to Club Brugge forward Emmanuel Dennis.
At the same time though, Vardy needs to be looking to his teammates for support and chipping in with more goals every now and then rather than making it all go through him. If he doesn’t get more support in the future, there might well be problems.