Jamie Vardy left out of Garth Crooks' Premier League team of the season

Vardy and Aguero have enjoyed very similar seasons, but only one of them inspired a side to the Premier League title

Jack de Menezes
Monday 16 May 2016 10:55 BST
Comments
Jamie Vardy was not included in Garth Crooks' team of the season
Jamie Vardy was not included in Garth Crooks' team of the season (Getty)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Garth Crooks has named his Premier League team of the season following the final weekend of matches, and he has somehow managed to leave out the Football Writers’ Association and the Premier League Player of the Year in Jamie Vardy.

Despite scoring 24 goals in the Premier League, firing Leicester City to the title and breaking into the England squad during an incredible 10 months, Vardy has not made the cut in Crook’s best XI, with the BBC’s football analyst instead electing to have Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane leading his attack instead.

Of course, any team of the season is open to discussion and Crooks can feel that Aguero impressed more than Vardy did over the course of the season, so how do the two shape up.

Both strikers scored 24 league goals this season, second only to Kane who led the way with 25, but Vardy can boast six assists to Aguero’s two, suggesting that the Leicester man can be considered more of a team player – something that is not surprising given the collective spirit of the Leicester side.

Aguero hits back though in his minutes per goal ratio though, as his 24 goals came in 2,373 minutes compared to Vardy’s 3,139 minutes for the same number of goals. The share a very similar shots on target record, with Vardy’s 53 out of 93 efforts just beating Aguero’s 52 out of 93 strikes.

They have both have limited impacts in big matches this season, with Aguero just about coming out on top. The Argentine has scored four goals against Chelsea – including a hat-trick in the 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge – plus efforts against Arsenal, Liverpool and Leicester, though the goals in the latter two matches came in defeats while the Arsenal match ended in a 2-2 draw.

Vardy has a similar record, with his three goals against Arsenal coming in 5-2 and 2-1 losses. He also scored twice against Liverpool though in a 2-0 victory, while his lone goal against Chelsea helped the Foxes to a 2-1 victory.

All the stats suggest that the decision to include either Vardy or Aguero is a difficult one, but perhaps the fact that Vardy helped take a side that was bottom of the Premier League to unexpected champions trumps Aguero given City have laboured to fourth place when they were tipped to win the league.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in