Wired Vardy on a high as he steals Thunder
AFTER the photograph that was published earlier this week, the idea of Jamie Vardy taking one last drag on a fag, downing a cup of coffee and declaring himself ready for action to Roy Hodgson here did not seem that far-fetched. He does like to operate on a cocktail of caffeine and nicotine, albeit with Thunder pouches rather than cigarettes, and what the Leicester striker demonstrated during this tense encounter is that it works. Stimulants have their place in sport if they remain on the right side of the regulations and the two Vardy uses may have made him more alert to the chance that suddenly presented itself when Ashley Williams diverted the ball into his path inside the Welsh six-yard box. Vardy looked wired from the moment he joined yesterday’s game at the start of the second half, injecting much-needed impetus alongside Daniel Sturridge into an England side who were stumbling hopelessly towards defeat. That Vardy scored when he did, just 11 minutes after coming on and with his first shot, was a credit not just to his predatory instincts but the tenacity and hunger he has displayed in an already remarkable season. More material for those Hollywood scriptwriters, for sure. After Hodgson’s experiment in the final warm-up game against Portugal backfired — Vardy, on the left of a front three, touched the ball just nine times before being hooked — it was felt that the Footballer of the Year had blown his final audition. He lost his place for the opening game against Russia. But Vardy has shown great patience as well as an unquenchable thirst for more glory, and that is a quality that Hodgson will need much more of as this tournament progresses. Vardy even proved himself a good tourist during a brief post-match interview last night. ‘Everyone wants to be a part of the starting line-up but it is a team game,’ he said. ‘We are all in this together and when you come off the bench you want to make an impact, and luckily I did today.’ Good fortune was not limited to Vardy. Hodgson might consider himself a touch lucky that throwing on three strikers and abandoning his original template — including his bizarre insistence that England were best served by Harry Kane taking the corners — paid off in the end. But teams often emerge as a tournament progresses and it does usually come down to the form of one player compared to another. Vardy and Sturridge are the beneficiaries of the difficulties Kane and Raheem Sterling have endured but a player still needs to take the chance a manager offers him and Vardy has done that in a manner that has echoes of the past. Michael Owen in 1998, David Platt in 1990, perhaps even Geoff Hurst in 1966. A tad premature to be making such comparisons? Maybe so. But Vardy posed an immediate threat and while Sturridge ultimately stole the show with a marvellous demonstration of his skill and balance for the winner, the contribution of Claudio Ranieri’s favourite 29-year-old should not be forgotten. He has surely played himself into the side for Slovakia on Monday, as part of the XI that started the second half here. How Hodgson organises them remains to be seen, and there was some confusion in terms of the shape they were playing during the second half. At one stage it appeared Hodgson had changed things completely, employing a 4-1-3-2 formation that had Eric Dier sitting in front of the back four and Vardy and Sturridge leading the attack. But at other times it seemed Sturridge was playing wider and so preserving the formation Hodgson employed against Russia and during the first half here, with Vardy replacing Kane and Sturridge taking over from the disappointingly ineffective Sterling. As the game against Portugal illustrated, Vardy is more effective in a central role and it would seem sensible to keep him there even if Sturridge does join him in a more orthodox front two. Hodgson was emotionless when Vardy scored, though rather more animated when Sturridge got him out of jail, but afterwards he was full of praise. ‘Jamie has a lot of confidence,’ said England’s manager. ‘I had no hesitation in putting him on at half-time. Harry was looking a bit tired in the first half. He’d worked hard against Russia and had a long season, so it was great to have someone like Vardy to step into his shoes. ‘Along with Marcus Rashford and Daniel Sturridge, in particular, it gave us something different when we needed to ask further questions of a packed defence.’ Hodgson declined the invitation to declare it the best double substitution of his career because, let’s face it, it was the desperate act of a desperate man and the exact decision he should have reached five days earlier in Marseille. Hodgson gambled and won on this occasion. But more than that, Hodgson gambled and found himself a team. One that includes Vardy.