Jose Mourinho has waxed lyrical about centre-forward Jamie Vardy ahead of Tottenham’s home clash against Leicester City in the Premier League.
Spurs manager Jose Mourinho has made a huge impact in just over a year at the club, which is why his team are now second in the league table and being mentioned in the conversation as title candidates.
They will be looking to bounce back from their recent defeat to Liverpool, which was a game they lost 2-1, but had plenty of clear goalscoring opportunities to snatch three points at Anfield.
Meanwhile, Leicester were also beaten midweek against Everton, but are fourth in the division standings and are capable of beating anyone on their day.
Leicester have one of the Premier League’s elite strikers in £140,000-a-week man Vardy, who has already scored 12 goals in 14 games across all competition this season.
Mourinho has picked out the English 33-year-old as an obvious Leicester threat that Spurs will need to watch, but has claimed he wish he had come to the Premier League sooner in his career.
He didn’t make his top-flight debut until 2014 after coming through the football ladder from non league and has scored 113 Premier League goals in a Leicester shirt.
“I have to say that he’s incredible, and I just feel sorry for him in the sense of he arrived in the Premier League too late. He should arrive a few years before and his career would be even longer, with more goals, with more history for the national team,” Mourinho said, as quoted by Football.London.
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“He’s a fantastic player, if I was a defender, I wouldn’t be happy to play against him because he’s very dangerous.
TRB’s View:
It’s clear that any team who faces Leicester will be looking to nullify Vardy, as any space in behind is like Christmas come early for the speed machine.
The striker hasn’t lost a yard of pace yet despite his age and will be looking to press from the front against Spurs, who will be much more switched onto his style under a tactician like Mourinho.
It won’t be a surprise to see Spurs sit deeper out of possession and they’ve shown they can defend well, while offensively they will fancy themselves to carve open the Leicester backline.