Alan Shearer slams ‘poor’ Richarlison after what Tottenham star did v West Ham United
Tottenham fans will be running out of words to describe how bad a signing Richarlison has been for them after he cost his team big time in their 2-1 defeat at home against West Ham on Thursday night.
Ange Postecoglou threw Richarlison, 26, into the game in the 67th minute to replace Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. It was an attacking roll of the dice by the Australian with the game level at 1-1.
Within minutes of coming on, Richarlison spurned a huge chance to put Tottenham back in the lead before, unfortunately, West Ham took the lead themselves through James Ward-Prowse.
Pedro Porro’s crossing was superb against the Irons and he’d already set up one goal with a corner aimed right onto the head of Cristian Romero in the first half.
But even with another superb ball into the box by Porro just after Richarlison came on, the Brazilian ended up heading a golden opportunity at the back post wide of the goal.
It led to criticism from Alan Shearer, who couldn’t believe the ex-Everton forward missed from that position.
Speaking on Amazon Prime Video Sport on Thursday night (7 December, 09:42pm), Shearer said: “It’s a great cross but a poor header. He just tries to glance it into that near post.
“He climbs up really well but just didn’t get the connection that he wants and heads it wide.
“It should have been in the back of then net.”
In all honesty, it wasn’t a shock to see Richarlison letting Tottenham down again.
He’s now made 48 appearances in all competitions for Spurs and despite costing the club £60million a year and a half ago, he’s returned just five goals. And only two of those goals have been in the Premier League.
Before the clash against West Ham on Thursday, Richarlison had generated an xG of 2.7 in the Premier League, meaning he’s massively underperforming in front of goal with just his one goal this term [FBRef].
Last season, despite ranking in the 80th percentile for attacking midfielders and wingers in the Premier League for shots per 90 minutes [2.41], he ranked in the 22nd percentile for non-penalty goals with just 0.09 per 90. His xG, however, was 0.29 per 90 minutes, which was in the 80th percentile.
Richarlison has so many chances but he’s squandering almost all of them.
His miss against West Ham generated an xG of 0.25 [Sofascore], so he’s now scored a third of the goals he’s meant to have scored in the Premier League this season.
On top of that, stats by Sofascore show that Richarlison had just eight touches of the ball in just under half an hour of being on the pitch and saw zero per cent of his two shots hit the target to go with his one big missed chance.
Richarlison has been a horrible signing for Tottenham and the sooner the club can move him on and reinvest the funds in someone who knows how to score for them, the better.
In other Tottenham news, £7.2million has gone down the drain on one Spurs player as Daniel Levy loses millions amid a crisis in North London.