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Kasper Schmeichel and Jamie Vardy have a lot in common.

They’re both 33, they’re the only two remaining members of Leicester City’s title-winning 11 that still form part of the current first-choice starting line-up, they’ve both improved since the arrival of Brendan Rodgers, they’re both lauded by rival managers.

And they’re both out of form. At least by their very high standards.

Schmeichel’s performances across nearly a decade at the King Power Stadium have taken him to a near-untouchable level. Since the title win, back-up goalkeepers have had next-to-no chance of usurping him. Now he has the armband, he’s in a stronger position than ever.

But his recent displays have generated debate among fans, who have asked questions like: should he be so comfortable in his control of the number one shirt? Is he good enough to lead the club to the next level?

But those questions are being asked prematurely.

In the same way that Vardy’s current dry spell is not prompting questions about his role as the club’s lead striker, it is too early for calls for Schmeichel to be dropped.

Because both players have the same problem: their early-season form was unsustainably excellent and they’re now going through poorer patches where their stats – whether that be goal-scoring or shot-stopping – are falling closer to their average.

Vardy has not scored since Christmas, and while he has been hampered by injuries and a downturn in form of the creative midfielders providing chances for him, his conversion rate was always going to take a hit at some point.

When he scored his 10th goal of the season at Crystal Palace, he did so with his 21st shot of the campaign. That’s a conversion rate of 48 per cent, way above his Premier League average of 22 per cent.

Now, with 17 goals from 53 shots, his conversion rate is a much more modest 32 per cent. To drop down to that level, he has had to have a dry patch. And yet, he is still the Premier League’s leading goalscorer.

It’s much the same for Schmeichel. Before Christmas, he had the best save ratio in the division at 80 per cent. Since Christmas, he has conceded 15 goals in nine games with his save percentage at 57 across all competitions.

That’s dragged his Premier League shot-stopping rate down to 71 per cent, which is still above his top-flight average before this season, 69 per cent.

It’s also a figure that keeps him ranked among the best shot-stoppers in the division. He sits seventh of the Premier League’s first-choice keepers for save percentage. When it comes to the expected goals metric – how many goals City would have been expected to concede based on the quality of chances they have given up – Schmeichel has let in three fewer goals than the average goalkeeper, a stat that ranks him 10th in the division.

But of course, for a modern goalkeeper, preventing the ball from hitting the net is not the only job.

Particularly for Rodgers’ grand plan, the goalkeeper needs to be adept with his feet too, and while his distribution has been criticised by sections of the fanbase, he ranks highly compared with his peers.

For passes of more than 40 yards, Schmeichel’s completion rate is fourth, behind Ederson, Alisson and Mat Ryan. For short passes, he ranks sixth, after Ederson, Alisson, David De Gea, Bernd Leno and Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Even Pep Guardiola was full of praise for Schmeichel on this front, saying in December: “It’s difficult [to press] against Leicester because Schmeichel is incredible. Sometimes you can press the goalkeeper but he has the quality to put it to [Ricardo] Pereira, to [Ben] Chilwell, to [Youri] Tielemans. It’s not easy to do that."

The only area where Schmeichel scores poorly is claiming high balls, but this has never been his forte, as evidenced by his hesitation in the build-up to Antonio Rudiger's first goal in last weekend's draw to Chelsea.

He has only claimed 2.3 per cent of crosses into the City box, the lowest rate of first-choice Premier League keeper.

But Alisson only ranks two places high, so it’s clearly not the be-all-and-end-all if the defenders’ positioning is good.

In short, there is nothing to suggest Schmeichel is in decline. In fact, like Vardy, there’s plenty of life in the title-winner yet.