HP Terbaru 2023 – Richarlison is a rare bright spot for Spurs – can he sustain it this time?

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By Karl Matchett

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Options aplenty

Given Richarlison signed for Spurs in 2022, it’s notable that current boss Thomas Frank is already the fifth person the Brazilian has seen in the hotseat in that short period. While two were short-term (and back-to-back) interim bosses – remember that dismal Cristian Stellini period? – it does point to the lack of cohesion the club have had at senior level, which includes turnover in director of football and even chairman roles more recently.

What all that has meant is a muddled transfer strategy at times, which right now has resulted in ten senior attackers being at the club in or around positions that Richarlison, himself a £50m plus £10m in add-ons signing, can occupy. That includes no fewer than four players who habitually do (or did) play in the No. 9 role: the Brazilian who wears the actual nine jersey, plus £55m Dominic Solanke, £35m Mathys Tel and the on-loan Randal Kolo Muani, who himself cost PSG the equivalent of around £70m only two years ago. Somehow, amid all that change and choice, it’s Richarlison who has emerged as Tottenham’s starting front man – and who is currently doing the business to help his side stay at least in the hunt to be competitive.

Richarlison’s stalled trajectory

Pick through his international career without saying his name and people would probably be impressed: 20 goals in 54 Brazil caps, including one calendar year where he hit 10 in 10. Goals scored in two Copa Americas and the 2022 World Cup. An Olympic gold medal and an appearance – and goal – in the triumphant Copa final of 2019. It looks great, but still only tells half a story. In his time Brazil have sometimes struggled more than usual for consistent forwards to support Neymar’s seemingly automatic inclusion, and while he netted those ten in the 2022 calendar year, he hasn’t scored a single goal since then.

At club level he won a title in Brazil, but as a youngster who scored four goals in his first top-flight senior season. Then there was nothing, right up until Spurs’ Europa League triumph last season – he netted one goal during that cup run and just five across the campaign overall.

For a forward of his pedigree and expense, it’s held against him that Richarlison has managed double figures in league goals just twice in the past five seasons, while hitting the back of the net a single time in his debut Premier League campaign with Spurs. This year though it’s seven in 11 starts, plus a further three assists – his 10 goal contributions placing him seventh in the league at the halfway point, from a combined xG+xA of just 4.6.

So: can he sustain it, and finally drive Spurs upwards?

This time it’s…different?

Richarlison’s problems haven’t just been limited to scoring regularly – he’s had successive injury concerns for the past two years. That makes this current run as a starter – six of the last eight in the league, off the bench in the other two – all the more important; not just for his form, but his assurance and confidence, his rhythm and reliability.

He certainly remains outside the absolute elite of the league, but in 1,075 league minutes he is showing his rounded ability by being top 16 for both expected goals on target and assists. Among Premier League forwards, he’s ahead of 75% of them for chances created and 80% for duels won. That aggressive side of his nature can also be seen in him being ahead of 84% of similar players around Europe for defensive actions – a massive boost to a team struggling to find cohesion, but put simply, improvements are still required in his attacking output to be the longstanding No. 9 at the club. He’s never going to be like Kane in a goalscoring capacity, but Spurs need a facilitator for other attackers as much as a finisher themselves, and that’s where Richarlison – rather than Solanke or Muani perhaps – can stand out as the team’s best option. For him the issue has always been maintaining that form as the side around him improves, rather than standing out as a hard worker with momentary genius in a side generally struggling.

Perhaps that’s simply and precisely what suits him: being the go-to fish in a floundering pond; a player who has the character to stand up when things aren’t going perfectly, but isn’t himself perfect enough to show the elite consistency to be the main man when a team is firing on all cylinders.

Spurs’ ambitions for the second half of 2025/26 have to be pretty straightforward: find league form to get top six or so, get through the Champions League playoff into the anything-can-happen knockout stage and nail down at least half a dozen players from the many, many options who will form the spine of the team going forward. Richarlison has shown, in fits and spurts and over short timeframes, that he can be one of those. Between now and May his job is to show it so regularly, he becomes one of those undroppable, often-reliable, manager favourite starters.

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(Cover image from IMAGO)

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