Who’s to blame for Leicester relegation? Part 8: strikers

Join FoL for this last part of the blame game of Leicester City’s relegation, it’s been emotional. Thanks for sticking with it, you’ve been more committed than the players this season.

Jamie Vardy – Games (42) – Goals (6)

Unless he finds someone to pay his astronomical wages Jamie Vardy leaves the Premier League as a number-one striker, number-one at being caught offside this season. Not sure if he’ll get a trophy or at least a framed photo collection of all his greatest offside strays, but without pulling any punches, the Leicester legend has had a stinker this season. Naturally, his age will be brought into play as his steady decline is expected.

As recently as the 25th of April, Vardy had scored only one Premier League goal tap-in that most of our grandparents would score. From that date, he did then show the Foxes fans glimpses of quality with back-to-back goals against Leeds and Everton. Incidentally, when a penalty was given not long after Vardy’s first goal against the Toffees, everyone looked puzzled as to why he let James Maddison take and subsequently miss it.

Then the following week we were all proven wrong when Vardy missed a penalty at Fulham. Only to be then proven wrong again when Maddison scored a penalty in the same game. Seriously it seems like the players are deliberately playing the most expensive joke on us sometimes. That little penalty chaos kind of summed up Vardy’s confidence this season, a bullish Vardy would have had no trouble taking the spot-kick and blasting it into the net. But this season has not been the best for judgment calls.

Even though we can accept Vardy’s goalscoring abilities reducing, his lack of aggression has been most noticeable. When opponents build from the back he tends to just occupy space up top to close off a pass to a deep-lying midfielder. He can’t or won’t get in defender’s faces anymore, he rarely times his runs off the shoulder and his hold-up play lacks finesse. He has barely any effect on games anymore and even the opposing fan’s disparaging chants are rarely shoved back down their throats.