The only penalty he's won this season was against Bruges wasn't it? That was a definite penalty and he won it by being too fast. I don't remember another.

So I don't think anything has changed since he was winning penalities in the Championship. He's always tried to initiate contact if possible but he does draw fouls so how we wins them is ok with me.

In many ways I agree and think he needs to be careful he doesn't start to see decisions going against him. Referees will be looking at him "winning" penalties and they may be less likely to give him genuine decisions.

Bale and Young suffered from this because they went too far "playing for" penalties. You only need 2-3 obvious attempts to buy a decision for them to start going against you.

I think he realised that he was rightly getting decisions last season when cutting across defenders. That's good play. But as you say, now he's started trying to initiate the contact, and when you do that and it doesn't come, it looks like cheating.

He needs to be careful. If i we're him, I'd stop doing that and concentrate on what was winning him penalties before and that's just plain being too quick for the defenders or goalkeeper.

Just to add though, I think he's only got a couple of penalties in this way (Everton last season a good example).

My point really was the way in which he attempts to win them as opposed to the ones he gets awarded.

I'm as positive as I can be that this has changed since he initially came here. His priority used to be getting past defenders and I feel that has changed somewhat

He has such a natural talent (irrelevant of what Owen says) for finishing from right angles I just don't see why he has started to do this because it doesn't even tie in with a lack of confidence in front of goal. I can only conclude its just become a habit - like a natural reaction and as one national paper rightly said, he is actually a better player than this

every striker does it and if he did not then we would be calling him the other way. He needs a goal i would not swap him he's ours and needs our support more than ever. You have got that doorknob Owen saying he's not a natural striker see the goal against Liverpool and you don't score the most goals in a row without being a natural goal scorer.

I found listening to Owen very frustrating, the bloke is a plum.

Saying he's not a natural finisher because he opts for power is just nonsense. Striking a ball with that conviction shows confidence, where a lack of confidence is shown by trying to pass the ball into the net, which Owen of course classes as being a natural finisher.

Vardy just picks his spot and puts his foot through it and more often than not the power beats the keeper. Owen also only has to go back to the goal he slid past De Gea in the 5-3 win. If that wasn't a natural finish I don't know what is. It's best to just ignore everything Owen says.

Ignore Owen. He was trying to make a valid point but for it all wrong.

This was clear when he said Shearer wasn't a natural finisher!! Any semblance of respect went then.

What he was trying to say is he's not a technical finisher. He won't dink the keeper after putting him on the floor, or feint to go one way and reverse it in to the other. I like those strikers too where you just know they'll score when they are one on one.

But he can finish. And he is technically better than most pundits give him credit for. Yes he tends to opt to put his foot through the ball, but it works. He knows where the goal is and he hits the corners. That is a natural goalscorer, if not a "pretty" one!!

Just curious why you say he's not going to dink the ball over the keeper or go round them when he's actually scored goals exactly that way.

Don't you remember him dinking it over Hennessy against Palace or going round Butland v Stoke at home or De Gea at Wembley?

I feel confident that Vardy will score one on one and his record for doing so is really high. Must be 8 out of 10 that he scores.

I loved Owen as a player. I started going to games and watching England in the pub (albeit underage) when he was in his pomp.

However, as a pundit, he's rubbish.

A lot of strikers actually struggle to score one on ones because when they have too much time to think about it they bottle it. Kane is a classic example of that, he very very rarely scores one on ones.

In my opinion Vardy is one of the best in the league, if not the best in the league in one on one situations. I honestly can't think of anyone who has scored more.

Concentrate on scoring and not diving then!!' 😡


I kid 😊

I don't recall him diving or looking for penalties this season and I don't remember any contentious decisions?

I really don't know which incidents you're referring to?

As I said, I was being light-hearted.

But to riposte, he dived against Copenhagen.

I didn't see that incident, obviously missed it somehow.

So is your article based on one dive against Copenhagen or are there other incidents that you're referring to that give you that opinion?

My article was based on Vardy's time as a whole at Leicester and watching him home and away during this time and my view on penalties awarded/not given and how I feel his attitude or perhaps technique in relation to gaining penalties has changed.

Although I did try to explain this, I'm no professional writer by any means so I appreciate that maybe it may have somehow just come across like I was talking about an isolated incident - if this is the case, I confirm it wasn't my intention.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

In a thread about diving no mention of Morgan getting booked when the Copenhagen player made a clear and deliberate dive?

I personally think Vardy plays a fine line but if he's in front of the player and gets touched, it's a foul.

comment by Keep_the_faith1 (U8129)
posted 29 minutes ago
My article was based on Vardy's time as a whole at Leicester and watching him home and away during this time and my view on penalties awarded/not given and how I feel his attitude or perhaps technique in relation to gaining penalties has changed.

Although I did try to explain this, I'm no professional writer by any means so I appreciate that maybe it may have somehow just come across like I was talking about an isolated incident - if this is the case, I confirm it wasn't my intention.
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Sorry yeah I did read it like you were referring to incidents this season so my mistake.

I don't think much has changed though since the Championship. I suppose he probably won more through pace back then because the defenders were slower.

Now that he's facing better opposition maybe he's having to find new ways of winning penalties so you're probably right.

I wish I'd seen the incident against Copenhagen so I could comment but in general he doesn't go down without contact, initiated or not. If he starts diving I'll have a problem but I don't have an issue with him drawing fouls.

The thing about doing "a Vardy" (ie racing in front of someone and getting tripped) is it's very much a grey area. You are allowed to get in front of someone and shield the ball, and then if someone runs through you, it's a foul. But, on the other hand, if you just run into someone's path, it's obstruction. So at some point the referee has to judge between the two, and as far as I know it's not clear. Most of the time I've seen Vardy do this I've thought it was a foul. Occasionally however (like against West Ham) I think he is the fouler.

Vardy's problem is that he's done it so often and, with that notoriety - and particularly the infamous Jon Moss decision to give him a second yellow for it - referees will be reluctant to give it precisely because it's controversial and arguably outside the spirit of the rules. If he wants to continue doing it, he's going to have to make it clear that he's got well in front of the defender before getting clattered.