’m getting so fvcking bored of hearing people saying he’s not strong or not strong enough.
His game isn’t supposed to be holding off massive centre backs. He’s not Romelu Lukaku. People are expecting him to be able to out-muscle Virgil van Dijk or Issa Diop. These guys are fvcking massive, they’re both like 6′ 4″, 200lb centre backs. Do you think Vardy would be barging these guys off the ball? How often do you see Vardy get the ball with his back to goal and shield it, hold it up like - say - Nacho does?
Daka = Vardy. I mean, like for like they have phenomenally similar styles. It’s why we signed him. Vardy’s a bit more aggressive, yes, but conversely I’d say Daka’s build-up play is probably a little better.
But otherwise, Daka is very similar - he’s a guy that’s often going to get very, very few touches in a game and then pop up with a goal. How many times over the years have we heard, repeatedly, people claiming that Vardy’s having a bad game because he’s gone 80 minutes with the least touches of anyone on the pitch and then bam - goal.
Daka is a poacher. He’s one of the best finishers I think I’ve seen at this club, he’s immense, needs a half chance and he’ll get a good shot off with either foot. But we actually need to create those chances for him.
Where he does need to improve and where he comfortably isn’t at Vardy’s level yet is his movement off the ball. There were a few times yesterday where he didn’t quite seem to get a handle on the run he should be making (not helped, IMO, by some pretty poor delivery to him) but Vardy had to learn that too. Vards was considerably older when he started banging them in in the Prem for us than Daka is now.