former Tottenham chairman and part-owner Lord Sugar criticized Richarlison for his lackluster performance on Thursday, December 28, against Brighton.
Spurs’ run of three straight victories came to an abrupt end at the Amex Stadium as Ange Postecoglou’s team lost 4-2 to the Seagulls.
After what turned out to be a lackluster team performance, it would have been a long drive from the south coast back to north London, with many players on the bus probably feeling very quiet.
Richarlison, an international player for Brazil, is one player who would have been extremely disappointed.
The 26-year-old was playing well going into the game, having scored four goals in the league in his previous three appearances. Nevertheless, the run of goals against Roberto De Zerbi’s team ended.
The striker did have the ball in the net twice, but neither goal stood because the former Everton player was correctly flagged offside both times.
He made very little of an impact during the first half, save from striking the woodwork late in the game. Richarlison won just one of his three ground duels and one of his three aerial duels, according to Sofascore, and only completed 67% of his passes, with just one of those being a crucial pass.
Before Postecoglou hooked him off in the 65th minute, he gave up possession seven times, was dribbled past once, and had three offside calls.
The player will be hoping to move on from the performance soon, as Lord Sugar harshly criticized it on his official X platform on December 28.
“Richarlison cannot read the play,” wrote Lord Sugar. He has three crosses that he has missed.
The 76-year-old is making some harsh remarks, but in the end, it’s difficult to disagree with his criticism.
Richarlison missed a great opportunity to put his team ahead with just 26 seconds remaining. If he had made more of it, the game’s outcome might have been very different and Tottenham could have gotten off to a dream start.
Dejan Kulusevski’s run to his left provided support for the striker after he picked up the ball in a central position.
He made a great pass to the Swede, giving Brennan Johnson and himself plenty of room to run into dangerous areas where Kulusevski might have been trying to play the ball.
Richarlison hesitated and lingered on the edge of the penalty area, failing to take advantage of the space in and around the six-yard box, while Johnson made the appropriate run. If he had completed the run, it would have led to an overload in the Brighton box; however, because he did not realize this, Kulusevski had very little to shoot for.
Brighton was therefore able to reclaim enough players and remove the threat with relative ease.
A little more than ten minutes later, Richarlison was guilty of missing the correct opportunity to cross, this time with his team trailing 1-0.
Johnson was the one who picked up the ball on the right this time. Similar to how he did in the opening thirty seconds of the game, Richarlison was reluctant to run straight through the box and put himself in a position where Johnson could identify him as dangerous.
Rather, he hung back, and even though Johnson managed to track him down, the nine was unable to take any action regarding the cross.
The ball escaped his grasp due to his heavy touch, going out for a goal kick.
At the Amex Stadium, all of this occurred in the first thirty-six minutes of play, with Lord Sugar’s post being sent out just thirty-six minutes in.
Even though Richarlison finds it difficult to accept the criticism, he needs to grow from these experiences if he hopes to remain a reliable goal threat for Tottenham and Postecoglou.
