Don't get too excited. Some Asians will buy shirts with anything in English written on them... It doesn't mean they know what it says or what Leicester is. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
please log in to view this image Some parents REALLY need to watch what their kids wear. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Seeing as you've been pulling your brains out through your nose Milk, you could do with this one. please log in to view this image
How many times do you need to watch a player before you form an opinion on him? Your view seems to be you have to watch every game he plays. How many games did it take you to decide Rooney is as **** as you've been suggesting he is (to be fair it's odd that you can be so critical of Rooney and yet so praising of Vardy, it does imply some club bias as, whilst I am no Rooney fan, he has achieved a fair bit in his career)? How many Liverpool games did it take you to realise Balotelli wasn't going to cut it for them? I've seen Vardy play enough times to know that he's a decent player going through a purple patch. The current hysteria about him from some certain fans/posters is representative of how football fans are prone to over reacting. This time last season it was Charlie Austin who should have been England's first choice striker. A year before that it was Rickie Lambert.
... to form an opinion? not many . .. to form a valid, balanced opinion ... more times than you appear to have in regard to Jamie Vardy ... and I notice that you are still being vague about that ...it's now 'enough times' ... as for Rooney ... the point I've been trying to make - and you are obviously missing - is that if you judge a player on limited viewing / footage - i.e 2010 World Cup - your opinion on his talent / worth, in absolute terms might just be wrong ... perhaps not completely, but certainly a less valid view than one based on a much broader evidence sample i.e having watched a player much more than you have in this instance ... .. my own view on Rooney? - best palyer England has produced in recent times - but over-hyped in the UK when it comes to the world stage ...
So how many times to form a valid, balanced opinion? You're the one setting the rules (I think because you've been watching football for longer than most) so set them. My opinion on Vardy isn't based on watching him play for a **** England team in 3 matches 5 years ago. Your comparison with Rooney in the 2010 World Cup is nonsense and doesn't make any point. I can only assume you picked Rooney out of all the players you could have had a pop at because I am a United fan and you assumed I would be a big fan of the Evertonian. Check my posting history on the subject of Rooney!
Mario was a joke signing that was never going to work so that's not really a great example. How about... How many Liverpool games did it take for to get an accurate assessment of Peter Crouch? ...that is a much more balanced player to use. He went twenty plus games without scoring but was effective on the pitch and once he found the goal he went on a bit of a scoring spree. However, over the course of the season his presence became disruptive to the team's play because we kept opting for the easy long ball to him. Therefore, it was very much a up and down affair so not easy to judge on a couple of matches. I do agree that you can get a impression of who someone players from a couple of games though. It was pretty clear (to some) what Dirk Kuyt was all about for example.
... so your opinion on Vardy isn't based on his England appearances? ... on what then - have you been watching our live games? ... did you see his recent performance against Arsenal? ... he scored twice and also hit the woodwork twice .. that 'bang average' player caused their defence problems all afternoon ... how did your lot get on against them? ... how did Bayern the other night? Given your opinion of his ability you must have been slightly surprised by these stats then? please log in to view this image ... not sure that your comparisons of Austin and Lambert could have matched all of these over close to a third of a season - but you probably watched them much more than I did
Crouch's ability was never in question though. He may not have fitted Liverpool's style but that didn't make him a bad player. Vardy can have a worldy purple patch, that doesn't make him a worldy player, it makes him a decent player going through a purple patch. That's my opinion and telling me that I haven't seen him play enough isn't going to change that. In fact saying that is akin to telling every football fan that they can't have a valid opinion on any player who doesn't play for their club.
I don't watch many England internationals. Never watch the friendlies, occasionally watch the qualifiers, usually while I'm also reading the paper / a book. They are desperately dull games. You've clearly made a wrong assumption there. I've watched Vardy play in a number of Leicester games over the past few seasons including in the Championship. My opinion is based on that. I haven't suddenly decided he's a world star because he's had a few good games. It would be naïve and childish to get over excited. As has been said by a number of posters, if he continues this form for the whole season and manages to take it into next season then it's something to get excited about. Even one good season isn't career defining. A number of players have one good season and then fade back into mediocrity. That's a nice picture and set of stats. It's been posted quite a lot recently. Do you think he'll maintain those stats all season and when he doesn't will the stats become irrelevant?
Not really. He's saying he need to have watched a player a decent amount of times; aka more than a handful. (I've not read all you exchanges so no idea how many times you have seen him) I've seen Vardy about three or four times. I can see he's a willing runner that chances lost causes and doesn't allow defenders too much time on the ball, all things I appreciate highly. What I haven't seen is a goalscoring machine or terrorising player that will consistently cause defences problems. However, I also realise that having only seen him play a few times that he could be capable of doing the latter and he's just not done it in the games I've seen.
