Vardy will look to avoid a 10th successive game without scoring for club and country today – a year after he found himself midway through a record-breaking goal glut.
So far this season he has only scored twice in the league, with his last goal coming at Liverpool on September 10 and Ranieri said: “He is very close to scoring because the more time that passes, the closer a goal gets.
“I said to him, ‘it’s not important if you score’. I know goalscorers want to score and without a goal they feel they’re no good – but that’s not true.
“Now in football everybody must fight, run and be part of the team. A long time ago, a goalscorer had to score. Not now. Now everybody must work.”
Palace manager Alan Pardew has his own striker problems – and has warned Christian Benteke not miss another penalty.
Benteke fired wide from the spot against West Ham last Saturday – his second miss of the season.
“We had a conversation about it this week and he’s still the man [to take them] – but we cannot afford to miss a third, you can’t get away with that in the Premier League,” said Pardew.
“This week his reaction in training has been to keep practising. I spoke to him about his reaction to his miss because he can look quite cool and sometimes it appears like he doesn’t care, but he wants to give the right impression and show what happened won’t affect his confidence.”