Richarlison blasted by former Tottenham chairman Lord Sugar after his performance v Brighton
Former Tottenham chairman and part-owner, Lord Sugar, has criticised Richarlison after the striker’s underwhelming display against Brighton on Thursday 28 December.
Spurs’ three-match winning run was brought to an abrupt halt as Ange Postecoglou’s side were beaten 4-2 by the Seagulls at the Amex Stadium.
It would have been a long drive home from the south coast back to north London, with plenty of players on the bus likely very quiet after what proved to be a disappointing team performance.
One player who would have left the ground particularly disappointed is Brazil international Richarlison.
Heading into the match, the 26-year-old was on a fine run of form, having scored four league goals in his previous three outings. However, that goalscoring run came to an end against Roberto De Zerbi’s men.
While the striker did have the ball in the back of the net on two separate occasions, neither goal stood with the former Everton man correctly called offside both times.
Other than hitting the woodwork late in the first half, his contributions were few and far between. As per Sofascore, Richarlison completed just 67 per cent of his passes, with only one of those a key pass, and won just one of his three ground duels as well as one of his three aerial duels.
He gave possession away seven times, was dribbled past once, and was called offside three times before being hooked off by Postecoglou in the 65th minute.
It was a performance which the striker will hope to quickly move on from and one which has been blasted by Lord Sugar via the businessman’s official X platform (28 December).
Lord Sugar wrote, “Richarlison can not read the play. He has missed three crosses.”
It is tough criticism from the 76-year-old, but ultimately, criticism which is hard to disagree with.
With just 26 seconds on the clock, Richarlison failed to capitalise on a great position for his side, which could have got Tottenham off to a dream start and led to a very different outcome on the evening had he made more of it.
Having picked up the ball in a central position, the striker was supported by the run of Dejan Kulusevski to his left.
His pass to the Swede was a good one, and both he and Brennan Johnson were left with acres of space ahead of them to run into dangerous areas where Kulusevski would have been looking to play the ball.
While Johnson made the correct run, Richarlison hesitated and hung around the edge of the penalty area, failing to exploit the space in and around the six-yard box. Had he made the run, it would have created an overload in the Brighton box, but instead, his failure to recognise this left Kulusevski with very little to aim at.
As a result, Brighton were able to get enough bodies back and clear the danger away with relative ease.
Once again, Richarlison found himself guilty of failing to make the right move for a cross just over ten minutes later, this time with his side 1-0 down.
On this occasion, it was Johnson who picked up the ball on the right. Just like in the first 30 seconds of the match, Richarlison showed a reluctance to make a direct run through the box and put himself in a dangerous area for Johnson to pick out.
Instead, he hung back, and although Johnson was able to find him, the number nine was in no position to do anything with the cross.
His touch was heavy, and the ball got away from him and out for a goal kick.
All of this happened within the first quarter of an hour at the Amex Stadium, with Lord Sugar’s post being sent out just 36 minutes into the match.
While the criticism is tough to take, Richarlison must learn from these situations if he wants to continue being a consistent goal threat for Tottenham and Postecoglou.
In other Tottenham news, one Spurs expert has piled the praise on a striker linked with the club ahead of January.