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Jamie Vardy scored a hat-trick against Manchester City on Sunday in Leicester’s 5-2 rout of Pep Guardiola’s side. He did it despite having the fewest touches of any field starter. Let’s see how he has become such an efficient goal scoring machine.
Last Updated: 09/27/20 7:24 pm
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FREE TO SEE: Highlights of Leicester City’s win over Manchester City
Twenty one touches. Three shots. Three goals. This is Jamie Vardy 2020.
“He knows exactly what he’s doing. Accurate, efficient and brilliant,” he said. Sky Sports’ Gary Neville, as a Leicester forward, earned his second penalty of the day from a bewildered Manchester City defense.
For the second time in the game, Vardy had landed the wrong side of a Manchester City defender, first Kyle Walker and then Eric Garcia, and emphatically dispatched the resulting penalty.
Between those two penalties, he produced the most delicious shot at the first post for his second. Garcia couldn’t match his career for that one either.
Jamie Vardy made a surprising movie to score his second
For a player who had the fewest touches of any field starter, Vardy transformed the game. City had been at the top, looking elegant and commanding and led Riyad Mahrez’s sweet punch. Without Sergio Agüero, without Gabriel Jesús? No problem. Or so it seemed.
Vardy has been a thorn in the side of Pep Guardiola and his City since the Spaniard made it to the Premier League. His careers have repeatedly caused City backline trouble, and he proved it once again on Sunday.
He has now scored nine goals in his last 10 appearances against them, more than any other player, and this hat-trick provided the platform for James Maddison and Youri Tielemans to add more sparkle to one of Guardiola’s toughest losses as a coach. .
Vardy barely had 21 touches against Manchester City
However, the real news about Vardy’s performance weren’t the goals. Your ability to find the web is no secret. Last season’s Golden Boot winner has 103 of them in the Premier League over the past five seasons.
Instead, this is how Vardy’s performance at the Etihad illustrates how he has refined his performances to maximize his performance.
England manager Gareth Southgate, watching this from the stands, knows all about how Vardy has made sacrifices to prioritize his fitness for Leicester. In addition to international retirement, there have also been personalized training programs and recovery sessions.
“I always want to improve. It doesn’t matter how old I am,” Vardy said. Sky sports After the match. “You want to keep improving every day and I hope to do so in training camp.
“I have a rest day tomorrow to recover and then go back to trying to improve even more and wait for next week.”
But in addition to careful management during the week, on the field Vardy is also more agile.
He averaged just over 31 touches per game in Leicester’s title-winning 2015/16 season. That number has dropped dramatically in recent years and he’s averaging just 19 touches per game this period.
“I was watching the runs he did and I thought he used to do 100 runs a game and maybe do it twice,” Neville said. “Now he does 10 runs a game and maybe eight times. He is much more efficient.
“When he arrived on the scene he was raw, aggressive. He played like an out-of-league player in the Premier League. Now his game has become more polished, smoother. There is more subtlety.”
2:49 Jamie Vardy talks to Sky Sports following Leicester’s 5-2 win over Manchester City
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers can take some credit for that adjustment, Vardy says. “Sometimes the player asks me to stay away from the ball to create as much space as possible for other players to enjoy on the field,” he said.
“Today was different, it was going in and doing a man marking job on Rodri. I knew we weren’t going to get too much of the ball, but it was all about making sure it was quality when we did. Get the ball.”
Quality is something Vardy has in abundance. But it can also add longevity to your list of attributes. The 33-year-old has gone from being the player who propelled Leicester to the title five seasons ago.
But here we are again. Leicester at the top of the table and a refined Jamie Vardy at the top of the scoring charts.
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