There's not much time left to commiserate over Tottenham Hotspur's shutout loss to Newcastle United, marking their elimination from the League Cup, on Wednesday night, but there is still plenty of time to chastise a starting player who should have already played himself out of the starting lineup weeks ago.
Perhaps with an eye to the London derby this weekend against fellow Champions League side Chelsea, Tottenham manager Thomas Frank elected to punt Randal Kolo Muani to the bench, instead gifting the start to Richarlison, who actually began the 2025/26 season under Frank as the starting striker.
That purple patch in the first few games of the campaign was very, very brief indeed, and Richarlison was predictably terrible against Newcastle. Well, to be quite blunt, he was even worse than expected, as he squandered several chances and genuinely didn't look like a striker. Though that last fact is about par for the course for Richy, since he's not really a natural 9, that fact became so apparent to Spurs supporters after this game that Richarlison's struggles have become the main talking point.
Richarlison at the striker position is a liability. In general, the striker position is a liability for Tottenham, because Kolo Muani and Dominic Solanke - the only two valid options up top - haven't been healthy enough to get a significant run of games. Solanke, in fact, is still injured.
Newcastle taught Tottenham a lesson
Tottenham have to see that Richarlison cannot start up top any more. That Newcastle debacle has to be the last time, unless if literally everyone including Mathys Tel is injured all at the same time (apologies in advance for this potential jinx). Otherwise, Frank needs to bar Richarlison from his mind as even a semblance of an option at the striker position.
Spurs are straight up disjointed, lacking in threat, and totally destructured as an attack with him up top. It's just not working, and if anyone could sit there, including Frank, and pretend otherwise, then that sort of fallacious thinking was completely destroyed by Fabian Schar and Malick Thiaw, who showed the Brazilian international absolute levels in this League Cup encounter.
As Frank and the team regroup from this humbling against one Champions League side in the English top flight, they must take that as a serious learning point heading into an even tougher opponent against Chelsea. Richarlison cannot start. Period. The choice is now a battle between RKM and Big Dom.