Wayne Rooney says Manchester United should follow the lead of record-chasing Jamie Vardy in their summit meeting with shocking Premier League leaders Leicester on Saturday.
Leicester City striker Vardy will be a history maker at the King Power Stadium should he score for a Premier League record 11th successive match and his record bid couldn’t come at a more uncomfortable time for the struggling Rooney and United’s other out-of-form forwards.
With 13 league goals this season, Vardy has scored more than all of United’s strikers combined and, fittingly, it is former Old Trafford great Ruud van Nistelrooy whose record he will break if he finds the net this weekend.
Rooney and his fellow United forwards have only nine league goals to their credit and they could not find the back of the net again in midweek with a 0-0 draw against PSV Eindhoven that left them in danger of missing out of the Uefa Champions League knockout stages.
United captain Rooney knows the threat posed by Vardy after linking up with the prolific 28-year-old on England duty and he wants his teammates to start showing the kind of composure and predatory instincts displayed by the Leicester star. “No, we’re not,” Rooney said when asked if his team were ruthless enough. “I think we need to score more goals as a team.
“I feel we showed a lack of composure which put ourselves under pressure a lot of times. It’s a learning curve for us, but we can’t go on saying it’s a learning curve. We have to start turning these games into victories.”
If Vardy does break van Nistelrooy’s record it will continue a remarkable rise for a player who was in non-league football with Fleetwood only a few years ago and last season scored just five goals for Leicester.
After firing Leicester in contention for a European berth less than a year after they were battling relegation, Vardy is such a hot property that Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri this week felt compelled to plead with the forward to ignore offers from bigger clubs in the January transfer window.
“At the moment we’re very happy and also Jamie is happy with us and he can continue to show his strength with us,” Ranieri said. “Jamie is now a champion. He has to take confidence in this. He’s a strong character because he comes from non-league.”
A victory for United, who have failed to score in four of their last seven matches, would take them to the top of the table, but a draw would open the door for Manchester City to regain first place. From a position of strength at the top a week ago, City suddenly face a test of their staying power against Southampton.
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