Leicester City’s English striker Jamie Vardy celebrates after scoring during a English Premier League football match between Leicester City and Swansea City at King Power Stadium in Leicester on August 27, 2016, which Leicester won 2-1
LONDON, United Kingdom, Nov 25 – Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has admitted that he is bamboozled as to why striker Jamie Vardy hasn’t been able to score in games on a regular basis.
Vardy has failed to find the back of the net in Leicester’s last 14 matches, but it doesn’t stop there as Ranieri revealed that the 29-year-old has struggled to score during training as well.
However, things are starting to look up as Vardy has begun scoring in training in the lead up to his side’s Premier League clash against Middlesbrough on Saturday.
“Today, he started to score in the training session and this is good news, because before he didn’t,” Ranieri said. “How many games he didn’t score? 14? It’s very close that he’s been missing in training [for the same period].
“Always Jamie works so hard. I’m happy with him. He is always normal, like last season. You don’t see him nervous or frustration. Always he’s the same on the training ground, smiling – it’s fantastic.
“It was very strange he didn’t score. He scored in the Champions league but was offside – unlucky.”
The reigning Premier League champions have only won one of their last seven Premier League matches, but have enjoyed success in the Champions League, where they booked their spot in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
Ranieri, though, wants his side to forget about the Champions League and focus on getting their Premier League campaign back on track.
“It’s something strange. Of course we are very, very happy [with the Champions League], but now we have to balance this,” he said. “For this reason I don’t want to talk about the Champions league. I tell the players now to forget and have full concentration on the Premier League and Middlesbrough.
“I’m very confident. Always I’m confident in my players. I’ve seen how they react in training and when they are working well, sooner or later it goes in the right direction.”
