Leicester 0-1 Man City: 3 things learned

Jamie Vardy should not be starting

As sacrilegious a statement as any Leicester supporter could make, but I stand by it. Vardy simply hasn’t looked threatening all season. With one goal to his name – a simple tap in at Molineux. He again offered no attacking threat whatsoever against Pep Guardiola’s team and this is something we shouldn’t really accept from any striker even if they are a club legend. But oddly his lack of goals isn’t really my main issue with his play.

In the Sky Blues contest, the former England attacker was positioned extremely deep, holding a sensible defensive position and almost serving as a central midfielder. But Vardy doesn’t press opposition defenders in any shape anymore. This may be an instruction given to him by the manager, but increasingly it is looking like he is losing that ability to play that way, possibly trying to preserve his energy. It is even more noticeable when Patson Daka is on the field who presses aggressively into defender’s spaces forcing them into errors.

This isn’t necessarily the end of Vardy but if Leicester want to play a high-octane pressing game, Daka is the one that needs to be the player starting. Being player that comes off the bench in the final third of games as an impact substitute suits ‘JV9’.