Jamie Vardy‘s a guy with a somewhat peculiar story, but the truth is that since settling in the Premier League in 2015 he has shown a goalscoring regularity that not many forwards at the top level can boast. However, 2019/20 was probably being the best campaign of Leicester City‘s number 9 in finishing terms. With a very low average of shots for a player of his position (2.03), Vardy has managed to score 0.56 goals per 90 minutes excluding penalties.
These graphs show some of his metrics compared to all the top five European leagues forwards who have played a minimum of 900 minutes this season. Although as we have already mentioned he is shooting few times, it must be said that he is selecting his shots better than most (0.19 expected goals per attempt). But what’s really distinguishing Vardy from the others is his shooting accuracy, which explains his high goal average. He has a finishing rate of 27.78 per cent and only a few such as Maxi Gomez (30%) or Mauro Icardi (33.3%) are above him in this category.
It’s really strange that Vardy’s shot volume is so low considering that the Leicester is producing a lot in attack. The Foxes have generated 1.95 expected goals per match this season. Even so, the Sheffield-born striker was leading the race to be the Premier League’s top scorer before the coronavirus outbreak stopped the competitions. At 33 and having played just 2,398 minutes, he had accumulated 19 goals, coming close to the amount (24) he scored the season the team won the league title.
In these shooting maps we have compared how Vardy finished in the 2015/16 season to how he was doing this campaign. And there is no room for doubt. If five years ago he adjusted efficiently to the shooting situations he had, this year he was showing much more cool blood and had scored at least five more goals than it was expected. 15 non-penalty-goals with chances that only accumulated 9.8 xG. With more experience in the elite and still nine matches to play, Vardy promised to hunt his best goalscoring record as a professional this year.
