Alan Shearer slams ‘poor’ Richarlison after what Tottenham star did v West Ham United
After he severely hurt his team in their 2-1 home loss to West Ham on Thursday night, Richarlison has been a really poor addition for Tottenham. The supporters will be at a loss for words.
Richarlison, 26, entered the game in the 67th minute as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s replacement, thanks to a pass from Ange Postecoglou. With the score at 1-1, the Australian made an offensive roll of the dice.
Soon after entering the game, Richarlison missed a fantastic opportunity to give Tottenham the lead again, but James Ward-Prowse of West Ham eventually gave them the lead.
Pedro Porro’s crossing against the Irons was excellent, and in the first half, he had already set up one goal when he sent a corner right onto Cristian Romero’s head.
However, despite Porro’s excellent pass into the box shortly after Richarlison entered the game, the Brazilian headed a fantastic chance at the back post wide of the net.
Alan Shearer, who couldn’t believe the former Everton forward missed from that position, criticised it.
Shearer remarked on Thursday, December 7, at 9:42 p.m. on Amazon Prime Video Sport: “It’s a great cross but a poor header.” All he’s trying to do is flick it into that close 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.”
To be honest, it didn’t come as a surprise when Richarlison let Tottenham down once more.
Even though he cost Spurs £60 million a year and a half ago, in his 48 appearances across all competitions, he has only contributed five goals. And the Premier League has only seen two of such goals.
Richarlison’s xG in the Premier League before Thursday’s match against West Ham was 2.7, which indicates that he is terribly underperforming in front of goal with only one goal this season [FBRef].
He finished in the 22nd percentile for non-penalty goals with just 0.09 per 90 minutes last season, even though he was in the 80th percentile for attacking midfielders and wingers in the Premier League in terms of shots per 90 minutes [2.41]. On the other hand, his xG fell within the 80th percentile at 0.29 per 90 minutes.
Although Richarlison has a lot of opportunities, he is wasting nearly all of them.
With an xG of 0.25 [Sofascore] from his miss against West Ham, he has now scored one-third of the goals he should have this season in the Premier League.
Furthermore, according to statistics provided by Sofascore, Richarlison only had eight touches of the ball in less than thirty minutes of play, and in addition to missing a major opportunity, neither of his two shots on goal were on target.
The sooner Tottenham can let Richarlison go and reinvest the money on a player who can score goals for them, the better. Richarlison has been a terrible addition to the team.