But if the attacker is coming from deeper and has the run on the defender, it's an unequal duel.superdimitri wrote:Yeah, the same Vardy that scored an amazing 3 headers total last year, 3 the year before that and 1 the year before that and only 2 out of his 24 league winning goals the season before that were from headers.
I guess Ben Mee has gifted him the chance to get 4 this year. I think you need to look at things again if you think Vardy is one of the "better" players in the air.
Point is, he isn't exactly a weapon the air compared to some players we face in this league. if you can't see that I don't know what you can see. Mee is small but Vardy isn't even taller than him either..
If a cross is whipped in as good as the one was against us then its a dual between striker and defender, nothing more than that. Mee lost when he should have won. He was in a position to do so, just didn't jump for some reason.
In this instance, it looked as though the cross would come in from in front of Mee, which allows him to come onto the ball and compete equally with Vardy. The minute Lowton allowed him to the by-line, Mee's backpeddling, whilst Vardy still has the benefit of his run up. All of which is why a player getting to the by-line at pace and crossing a ball is generally regarded as being more dangerous than a ball flighted in from deeper.
It seems to me we're now conceding more crosses from positions closer to the byline than we used to, with the result that our defenders are on the back foot more when the ball comes in. Partly, that's the full backs, but its also reflective of the players playing in wide positions (the covering wide player for both the goals at Leicester was McNeil, on different sides). This isn't relevant to the defeat to Chelsea but it has been a trend previously.