Ranieri backs Vardy to hit the heights again at Leicester

Jamie Vardy ended a 14-game goal drought with a second-half strike for England on Tuesday night and his manager at Leicester Claudio Ranieri always knew the striker would come good.

Vardy was one of the key figures in the Foxes’ magnificent Premier League title triumph last season, breaking the league record by scoring in 11 games on the trot at one point.

But this season he has found the going tougher, indeed before his effort in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Spain, Vardy had not hit the back of the net for club or country since the Foxes’ defeat at Liverpool back in September.

And while the marksman admitted his relief after the final whistle and now hopes he is back on a hot streak, Ranieri knows football can be a fickle beast.

“Jamie is a goalscorer and all the goalscrers in the world have good periods and bad periods,” he said.

“You know sometimes goalscorers have to pay for what happened one season when the next one starts.

“Scoring 11 goals in a row is not easy to do. I think at the end of this season, he will have goals in double figures.

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

“When I speak to him, I say ‘Don’t worry, the important thing is the job you are doing for the team and sooner or later the goals will arrive.’

“I don’t tell him anything different. He came from the bottom and he’s arrived at the top because he’s a strong man.

“I have worked with some very fantastic strikers – Batistuta, Careca, Fonseca, Hasselbaink, Zola, Del Piero, big champions always know they can score. They all knew – it’s not possible to score 20 goals every season.

“In his career, Jamie has always scored a lot of goals. The important thing is his job for the team. He is not playing on his own.

“When you work well, the goals arrive sooner or later.”