Jamie Vardy’s determination to face Tottenham laid bare as Leicester’s main man shines
Jamie Vardy was short of fitness after a knock in pre-season but still managed to make the difference for Leicester as they opened their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Tottenham
Jamie Vardy has been saluted as Leicester City’s ‘main man’ – and is playing like a striker 10 years his junior.
That was the verdict after the evergreen forward reminded the Premier League of his goalscoring prowess with a goal against one of his favourite clubs on Monday night. Vardy netted his ninth in 17 appearances as Ange Postecoglou’s men paid the price for taking their foot off the gas following Pedro Porro’s first-half opener.
And afterwards, both new Foxes’ chief Steve Cooper and midfielder Harry Winks paid tribute to the 37-year-old. The former England striker was not expected to play after taking a knock in the first pre-season friendly against Villareal last month but declared himself fit and, four sessions later was ready to start.
Cooper said: “He looked really sharp before his knock in pre-season and that was a real setback because we could see that he had come back very motivated. He’s the main man here, isn’t he? There’s no doubt about that.
“We want to continue to support him to be that guy and if we can get more moments like tonight we’ll all be better off.” Winks said that Vardy, who skippered the Foxes’, would be ‘a key player’ for the remainder of this campaign.
He said: “It was massive when he declared himself fit. He told the team he was ready to lead the line, ready to go out there. He’s only trained for a few days but you would have thought he’s been training all pre-season.
“He has that mentality – I don’t think anything fazes him and that’s a credit to him. He’s one of the most professional players in the team and looks after himself well, that’s why he’s still playing at his age now and still looks like he was 10 years ago.
“He just scores goals – he does it in training, he’s done it his whole career. You could see it again, he scores, he’s always there. He has a knack, he has a gift for scoring and he always has done. He’s always in the right place at the right time.
”He’s one of the best at it and you could see today his age is irrelevant. He knows the game, he knows what to do and I’m sure he’ll be just as key for the rest of the season as he has for his whole career.”
Leicester swooped on Spurs to add Oliver Skipp to their ranks hours before kick-off on Monday night. Asked what the former England Under-21 international would bring, Cooper said: “Strength in depth for sure. We have some good midfield players but we need a good variety of midfield players who can perform different roles.
“Skippy will compliment that. We’re trying to add more players – we need to strengthen other areas of the pitch, particularly at the top end. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later and allows us to continue the good momentum. What the guys did last year was amazing and it sets us up for more progress.”
