One of the most annoying trends among the AI bots of the Tottenham Hotspur fandom that has happened recently is this contrarian take that Richarlison is actually a good striker because he scores goals at an efficient rate, as if being set up on a platter in front of the six yard box by Randal Kolo Muani or having the ball fortunately bounce off your back after a great shot by Wilson Odobert are really any credit to the Brazilian international's work.
While Richarlison isn't all bad and was once legitimately one of the best Premier League forwards as the savior of Everton, he has come nowhere near his 60 million pound price tag at Tottenham. Most people assumed he would have been sold this past summer, but, once again, Richy wanted to stay at Spurs, and while you have to admire that, cynically, perhaps, there is an understanding among Spurs supporters that Thomas Frank and the club siply knew that nobody was going to pay for him anyway.
Prone to injury, even more prone to missing sitters, and frustratingly anonymous in terms of his creation or even one on one ability at this stage of his already advancing career, Richarlison has been a liability in most Tottenham games this season.
Thomas Frank has to realize he's on the line
Yet Thomas Frank, with his job starting to actually be on the line, continues to entrust him with starts. Tottenham laid yet another egg on Saturday night, squandering a must win game against an easier London rival, falling 2-1 to Fulham.
And Richarlison did precisely nothing to help the team. Hooked off at 59 minutes after recording no key passes, no dribbles completed, and no shots on target (or even shots at all ), Richy was invisible in another important game and unable to ride the coattails of Kolo Muani.
That's not because RKM, who contributed to three goals in a heroic Champions League performance against his parent club and the reigning winners of European football's most prestigious club competition, wasn't present. He was there and somehow looked dangerous despite playing next to a cavernous hole of a striker. It's just that Richarlison was so hopelessly poor nothing could have coaxed a good game out of him.
Dominic Solanke's return can't come soon enough, but, in truth, Spurs would have been much better off starting Mathys Tel over Richarlison anyway. Frank has seen Richy fail time and time again, and yet every single game pretty much, he starts him. It is a foolish stubborness so puzzling, you almost wonder if Frank is trying to sabotage himself back to Brentford.