Jamie Vardy has recently joined the newly promoted Serie A club, Cremonese, after writing history at Leicester City throughout his 13 years with the English club.
One of the biggest Premier League icons has made the unexpected choice of moving to Serie A for the first time in his career, taking a huge risk at the age of 38.
But despite the critics and doubters about his potential success, Vardy has all the ingredients to prove them wrong.
His attacking skills and goal-scoring instinct will continue to help him score important goals in Serie A, even at 38.
What was even more unexpected was the club to which Vardy moved, since Cremonese don’t have much experience in Serie A and have just been promoted back to the top-tier in Italy.
At the same time, having an experienced head coach like Davide Nicola and playing with plenty of talented players can help Vardy perform at his best in Italy and help his new team create a surprise in Serie A this season.
It is very important to note that I Grigiorossi kicked off the season with two surprising and crucial wins against AC Milan and Sassuolo, which highlights how serious the team is and how they are already making it very difficult for opponents to beat them.
In this Cremonese tactical analysis and Jamie Vardy scout report, we will focus on Vardy’s potential addition to Cremonese while looking at how Nicola can help him perform at his best and be as lethal as possible inside the box.
Therefore, the analysis will shed light on the tactical adjustments that Nicola will probably need to make to prepare Vardy for success at Cremonese, with a section highlighting his remarkable and unorthodox goalscoring skills.
Jamie Vardy Current Abilities
To provide a precise evaluation of Vardy’s current form, it is essential to examine his statistics from last season, allowing us to anticipate his performance at Cremonese this season.
Everyone already knows that Vardy, at his peak, was a remarkable and very clinical striker whose impact and goal-scoring abilities made the difference for Leicester.
However, it would be unfair to consider his peak season numbers, as age and experience can significantly impact players’ statistics, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
With Vardy, the last two seasons of his spell at Leicester were, of course, not as impressive as his peak seasons, yet he was still able to score many goals; 10 goals last season and 20 goals in the season before.
The following pizza charts show that Vardy’s statistics deteriorated last season.
This can be due to various reasons, not necessarily to the player’s form or abilities.
What is certain, though, is that Vardy is still very useful and dangerous in the air, and that his finishing skills are still as crucial as before.
This guarantees Cremonese a heavy presence inside the box with a striker who causes a lot of trouble to defenders, mainly thanks to his finishing abilities and quick movements with and without the ball.
What is even more beneficial for Cremonese and for Vardy himself is that the English striker has not lost his dynamism or his pace yet, and that’s one of Vardy’s most remarkable traits.
Being a very quick and dynamic striker will undoubtedly create numerous issues for opposing defences.
Vardy typically runs fast, knowing exactly when and where to accelerate, thanks to his experience and goal-scoring expertise.
Jamie Vardy Stats At Leicester City
How Does Jamie Vardy Fit In At Cremonese?
Nicola’s Cremonese started the 2024/2025 season using the 3-5-2 formation and will most probably continue playing according to it since it suits Nicola’s ideas and the Cremonese players’ abilities.
With the arrival of a veteran striker like Vardy, Nicola will most likely maintain the same formation, with Vardy becoming the main striker and one of the reliable strikers playing alongside him as a second striker, without altering the entire formation.
Antonio Sanabria, David Okereke, and Federico Bonazzoli can all play alongside Vardy, as the latter excels in the main striker role and can be utilised efficiently as a “fox in the box” and as a dynamic yet technically skilled striker.
This also means that Vardy can feed off his teammates, in addition to being crucial in interpreting the role of second strikers and dropping deeper into the final third, finishing with shots from distance, providing assists to the main striker, and so on.
Vardy allows Nicola to alternate his choices and complicate the opponents’ attacking plans.
In fact, Vardy fits Cremonese’s style of play perfectly, since he is very reliable in the air and can deal well with crosses and through passes.
He can also be outstanding when needing to escape from marking and put himself in a suitable goalscoring situation.
Cremonese have already scored goals thanks to their reliance on through passes to the box and crosses that the team’s strikers have well exploited.
Cremonese Goal Against Milan
Perhaps the most remarkable example is Bonazzoli’s volley against Milan in the opening game of the season.
It followed an interception inside Milan’s final third and a quick cross that was followed by great movement and shooting technique from Bonazzoli.
Having a player who excels in first-touch finishes and who has the experience and mastery of the various finishing techniques, and from the most complicated angles, can surely make these crosses even more rewarding and useful for Cremonese.
Cremonese also rely heavily on set-pieces and counterattacking.
They play with a low defensive block, especially against big teams, but they keep their attacking players ready to get passes and accelerate towards the box.
In this regard, few players are better than Vardy in terms of positioning and awareness of movements without the ball during counterattacks.
This means that Vardy can represent a powerful asset on which Cremonese can base their counterattacking style of play.
This can be simply done by prioritising passes to the wings, so that one of the wing-backs advances and provides a through pass or a cross to Vardy.
Another alternative would be to go directly for a cross towards Vardy, especially if he times his movements well to receive that cross without marking.
Vardy has scored many goals from counterattacks during his career and is known for his surprising defence and goalkeepers, as well as his pace, quick movements, and surprising shooting techniques from different positions.
Exploiting those skills will definitely help Nicola’s side, as the experience of such a striker will surely be needed, especially on big occasions when the exploitation of half-chances matters a lot.
Jamie Vardy Goalscoring Skills
As mentioned above, what is very important to note regarding Vardy is that he has not lost his finishing touch yet and that he is still very dynamic and intelligent inside the box.
This will allow him to continue being crucial in terms of goalscoring despite changing the league and moving to play in a more defensive and tactical league like Serie A.
That said, Vardy’s experience will most probably help him adapt quickly to Italian football and be useful right away, especially with finishing.
Jamie Vardy Last Goal For Leicester City
Last season, Vardy was able to score beautiful goals that confirm his everlasting goalscoring talent.
His last goal for Leicester City highlights his crucial movements without the ball inside the final third, knowing that in this case, Vardy’s movement is what invited his teammate to give him the through pass to eventually finish inside the net.
Furthermore, Vardy’s diversity of goalscoring solutions is immeasurable.
He can score with both feet and with the same accuracy/power, and that’s one of the things that makes him a unique striker.
Jamie Vardy Left-Footed Finishing
In this goal action, he waits for a cross while advancing towards the goal.
Still, he stops surprisingly at the right moment to keep his markers away and receive the ball in a suitable situation, paving the way for himself to finish using a left-footed first-touch half-volley.
In the video, the action might look too easy to execute, but in reality, knowing exactly when to stop running and how to finish without risking shooting the ball away from goal requires massive concentration and remarkable skills, and that’s what Vardy brings to Cremonese.
And as mentioned above, Vardy will soon become Cremonese’s fox in the box, meaning that he will be looking for opportunities to finish with one or two touches at maximum, exploiting any opportunity that he can benefit from.
Jamie Vardy Finishing Anticipation
This goal example further confirms that Vardy still has that goalscoring instinct in him, which usually gives him the advantage over his opponents during goalscoring situations.
It illustrates how Vardy can anticipate defenders’ disturbance and clearance attempts.
He usually times his shots and finishes well to avoid losing the opportunities that he gets.
Jamie Vardy Dribbling Past Goalkeepers
Throughout the seasons he played with Leicester City, Vardy showed that he can score using lobs, powerful shots from distance, headers, curved shots, acrobatic moves, and dribbling past goalkeepers.
He is one of the players who does not fear goalkeepers and does not hesitate in dribbling past them before finishing with accuracy, even when the angles become complicated to score from.
This is another trait that Vardy brings to Cremonese, as they do not have a striker who masters such techniques or is used to dribbling past goalkeepers with continuous success.
Conclusion
Vardy will bring an enormous amount of expertise and skills to a Cremonese side that needs such attacking quality to keep battling to avoid the relegation battle.
Knowing how to utilise Vardy’s talent to the best possible extent and serving him as much as possible during the upcoming games will certainly increase Cremonese’s chances of scoring goals, especially if Vardy gives 100% from his very first match with the team.
