'I'm not in competition with vardy' - Kelechi Iheanacho

Returning to England after saving Nigeria’s Super Eagles from defeat in the hands of Warriors of Zimbabwe in the World Cup Qualifying match last Sunday, the Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho has been talking about his relationship with club legend Jamie Vardy.

Vardy is the all-time top scorer of the club.

Iheanacho said “It’s never a battle with Jamie Vardy,” as both share the place in the starting line-up under Enzo Maresca.

The City boss has shared the starting place as the sole striker between both Vardy and Iheanacho so far this season. ‘Kele’ was named in the line-up against Stoke City penultimate Saturday, and scored City’s first goal.

He was replaced by Vardy in the second half, with the striker doubling City’s lead within minutes of entering the pitch. The goals mean that both players have scored four times in the Championship.

Speaking to Leicester TV, Iheanacho was asked about the competition for places between him and Vardy. He was quick to put any assumption of any sort of rivalry over a starting place to bed.

“Let me put that right, it’s never a battle with me and Jamie, he’s a legend in the game, he’s done a lot for this great club, so it’s never a battle for me and Jamie,” he said. “I’ve got absolute respect for him, he’s a legend as I’ve said before, so it’s never a battle.

“If he plays, he scores, you know what he’s like. So, if I play, I do my bit. Me, Jamie, Patson (Daka), it’s never a battle, we are happy with where we are at the moment.”

City have shared the goals around the team this season. Both strikers scoring in the same game is only a good thing, according to Iheanacho who highlighted the camaraderie between the forwards at the club.

“It’s a great motivation for both of us. Everyone is happy at the moment with what we are doing,” he added.

“We have a lot of strikers as well, me, Patson, Jamie and Tom Cannon. So it’s a lot, we are together, work together as a team and whoever plays gives his absolute best and gives his best for the football club.”

Manager Enzo Maresca further explains Leicester City selection policy with Vardy and Iheanacho.

Leicester City’s two leading strikers have shared the minutes this season, with Maresca tending to swap them over every Championship game, and rarely playing them together

While City’s strongest 11 is becoming clearer by the week, there is a debate over who is the more effective player to lead the line, with Maresca regularly rotating. Vardy has started eight of the 15 Championship fixtures so far, with Iheanacho in the line-up for the other seven.

In recent weeks, Maresca has tended to swap them over each match, but against Leeds, he started Vardy for the second straight game. It wasn’t the number nine’s best outing, and he could not find the space to make himself a threat, unable to register a shot and touching the ball just twice in the box.

It is those qualities inside the penalty area that Maresca picks Vardy for, with Iheanacho the better option when he needs a striker to link play more. However, explaining his selection policy, the manager says that more often than not he just swaps them over no matter how his team intend to play.

“Inside the box, Jamie is the best one and we cannot teach him anything,” Maresca said. “Probably we can improve him outside of the box, how to link.

“Kele, he has to go on the other side. He is very good at linking, probably he needs to improve inside the box. They complete each other.

“The reason why one is going to play and the other is not going to play is most of the time we use one and the next time we use the other one. Also it depends if they defend with a line of five, if we need to link a little bit more. It depends.”

Although they do “complete” each other, they have not started together this season, with Maresca preferring to play just one striker at a time. For a few minutes late in the win over QPR, they were on the field together as City chased a winner, which came through Harry Winks. That’s not something Maresca is likely to do often. He says it upsets the balance of his team.

“We used them together (against QPR) because the idea was to attack with six players against the line of five,” Maresca said. “It’s a matter of balance. When we use both of them, we need two holding midfielders. One of them is Harry, and the other one is Cesare (Casadei) or Kiernan (Dewsbury-Hall), or Wilf (Ndidi) or Kiernan.

“Sometimes we take the decision to balance the situation. If we use Kele and Jamie together, probably we struggle to use Kiernan in the same game, because then we have just Harry as a holding midfielder. At the end it’s a matter of balance. But we try and consider using Kele and Jamie together, no doubt.”