Player Watch Player Watch: Richarlison

$hoguN said:

That’s such a daft analysis though. Felt they are a threat Vs don’t.

Richarlison is scoring goals, working for the team, and even setting them up. He is having a decent season. He isn’t setting the World alight but he is contributing. As a fan base we are awful to him, starting some strange narrative around Johnson not being good enough (even though he is contributing) and pretending that it’s easy to find someone who scores 20+ a year

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Disagree on the basis I don’t think the OP’s comment was ‘daft analysis’ I’ve been to a few more games recently and thought exactly the same thing @newbie said that we miss a striker even like Defoe who always felt a threat and could shoot on site, for Richy he scores tap ins or headers, other than that his finishing especially with his left foot is poor.

Im glad Richy has found some form but I don’t think he’s an out and out n.o9 and as Newbie says it would be good if we had a striker who shot a bit more, Werner has a good shot on him especially cutting in from the left, Richy’s shots are often off target or weak compared to someone like Defoe who Newbie referenced never mind Kane (who imo no point comparing to as he was true or world class and we won’t replace that unless we signed say Osimhen next summer.

Danny1 said:

It’s a bit like the old Fergie follow up manager. Any manager that replaced him had an impossible task to be honest.

It’s the same with Kane. His finishing is unreal, probably the most clinical finisher in all of world football currently, so anyone following that has a ridiculously difficult task. Add to the fact Kane was also excellent with the ball at his feet it makes it so much more difficult.

Ultimately, Richarlison has 6 goals and 3 assists and is averaging a goal every 150 mins which is the 9th best in the league. His work rate is very very good and I want to see how he gets on for the rest of the season. If he can get 15-20 goals then that is a great return from him.

We cannot expect him to be at Kanes level because there are probably only 2/3 in the world that are.

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To be fair the Burnley game aside I think Richy has been playing fairly well recently.

Richarlison can only really score one touch finishes. I don’t feel at all confident when he is played through and nor do I see him hitting any long rangers.

The main problem with him is that whilst he can be good, his bad days are so bad that he literally offers nothing when he is having one. You can’t rely on him to trap and pass a ball. He needs to raise his minimum level as otherwise he will not be the main striker come next season.

adamsky said:

Richarlison can only really score one touch finishes. I don’t feel at all confident when he is played through and nor do I see him hitting any long rangers.

The main problem with him is that whilst he can be good, his bad days are so bad that he literally offers nothing when he is having one. You can’t rely on him to trap and pass a ball. He needs to raise his minimum level as otherwise he will not be the main striker come next season.

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Spot on

“He scores unconvincing goals” is easily my favourite criticism I’ve ever read on this site, and there is a LOT of competition.

My main gripe is his hold-up play.
As someone said in another thread (believe it was @Trix ), Richy works hard and uses his physicality to win balls but as soon as someone gets physical with him when he has the ball, he flops down trying to win a free kick. Goes down waaay too soft for my liking and disrupts the game.

adamsky said:

Richarlison can only really score one touch finishes. I don’t feel at all confident when he is played through and nor do I see him hitting any long rangers.

The main problem with him is that whilst he can be good, his bad days are so bad that he literally offers nothing when he is having one. You can’t rely on him to trap and pass a ball. He needs to raise his minimum level as otherwise he will not be the main striker come next season.

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Very fair analysis.

To add, he does also press well and work hard and can at times hold the ball up ok but as you say its more one touch finishes or headers otherwise if he's played through or shooting from range he's average at best.

Now in Ange's system there is a big emphasis on low crosses and the striker or someone else running onto finish it so in that sense he suits most of what we need in that striker role but at the same time if teams are stopping those crosses and we need to find another way to score then Richy can become quite ineffective.

Will be interesting to see how Werner does although I think he will get a run mainly at LW and then possibly for the final 20-30mins up front at times when Richy comes off.

It'll also be very interesting to see how Richy does the rest of this season and if Ange feels next summer we need to replace him with a better starting option and Richy becomes more of a squad/back-up option and/or if we sell him, or if Richy smashes the rest of the season if Ange feels that the best approach would be to add another squad rotation attacking option who can cover out wide and ST (possibly Werner if he does really well and we want to make that permanent).

If we are super serious about challenging then next summer if he would come to us and we can afford it then I'd like to see us go big for someone like Victor Osimehen or Vlahovic and sell Richy to Saudi and then possibly make Werner permanent and/or sign Jota so we have options something like as follows:

ST: Osimehen or Vlahovic *(or another similar standard clinical all round top top level striker, maybe Giminez as a slight step down if needed but then he could be a risk and potentially no better than Richy whereas I have little doubts the other 2 wouldn't take the PL and our system by storm) , Veliz
LW: Son, Werner (can both cover ST also) *or Jota instead of Werner and Son covers ST quite often when needed + Solomon
RW: Kulu, Johnson

Perisic moves on most likely and we sell Gil.

That would be my plan anyway so we have 6 'starters' (Osimehen,Son,Werner,Solomon,Kulu,Johnson) plus Veliz and mabye one other from the youth team who gets minutes here and there as they develop.

I feel like I've forgotten someone but that would be my thinking as Ange's system is so high energy and if we are back in Europe, hopefully CL then we will get this 6-7 options set-up so that after 60-70 mins of hard work we can bring on some other options and rotate where needed and have enough depth to cover inevitable injuries.

So first of all I am a big Richy fan. I am still convinced that he is one of the better strikers out there. He is not world class but there are only a handful within that category and sadly I dont think we have the pulling power to attract them. I did not expect him to be this prone to confidence issues, which seems to be an huge factor, so I really hope he can keep it up for his and our sake. I actually think his goal against Bournemouth was the first one I can remember where he genuinely smiled after scoring, so I would really wish for him to continue it.

Two major technical deficits which I did not realize before him joining:

1. Richy is slow. I dont know why but whenever I saw him before joining us I had the impression that he was fast. Not BJ fast but at least that he will not get caught up almost everytime he runs at goal, even with a slight head start against defenders. Especially in the last two games there were several occasions where he was actually 1-2 meters ahead of the defender early on due to right movement but then lost out at the end. I dont know if its maybe still an issue after the surgery, if yes, I hope it will get better.
2. He is not utilizing his body movement at all. Same situations where he lost to those defenders it was always a similar situation, he runs kinda away from the defender, not just forward but trying to win ground sideways, especially to the left side and then tries to finish with his weaker left foot. This was something which Kane excelled at because he knew he was not the fastest sprinter with the ball, he would mostly cut infield, forcing the defender to slow down one step or run into Kane and get a yellow card. This is something that I am surprised Richy is not able to do or the coaching staff trying to improve, because its such a basic move that I think would help Richy tremendeously.

He will go through phases of scoring goals but all in all he's a mediocre striker at best.

He's a step up from the likes of Soldado and Vinnie who were pretty pricey in times gone by but for 65m quid it's been poor. Whenever we spend big we normally get burned.

mano-obe said:

he's a mediocre striker at best.

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How are we defining "mediocre striker"?

mano-obe said:

He will go through phases of scoring goals but all in all he's a mediocre striker at best.

He's a step up from the likes of Soldado and Vinnie who were pretty pricey in times gone by but for 65m quid it's been poor. Whenever we spend big we normally get burned.

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A 'mediocre striker at best' does not score 20 goals in 48 appearances for Brazil, nor do they score 1 in 3 for Everton mostly playing out wide. Ok so he hasn't exactly been in great goal scoring form for us just yet (although his record over the last 6/7 games is excellent) but he should be on course to hit close to 15 league goals for us this season which really wouldn't be bad at all.

Oscar22 said:

“He scores unconvincing goals” is easily my favourite criticism I’ve ever read on this site, and there is a LOT of competition.

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Who wrote that?! It's so true. I've never thought about it like that, but it's totally right

mano-obe said:

He will go through phases of scoring goals but all in all he's a mediocre striker at best.

He's a step up from the likes of Soldado and Vinnie who were pretty pricey in times gone by but for 65m quid it's been poor. Whenever we spend big we normally get burned.

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Richarlison ranks 7th in the league (among players with 900+ minutes) with a goal involvement every 100 minutes.

He trails

Haaland
Salah
Nunez
Watkins
Palmer
Sonny

Richarlison

Partial list of players he is outperforming:

Julian Alvarez
Alexander Isak
Moussa Diaby
Bryan Mbeumo
Bukayo Saka
Eddie Nketiah
Anthony Gordon
Joao Pedro
Raheem Sterling
Dominic Solanke
Jarrod Bowen
Anthony Elanga
Evan Ferguson
Phil Foden
Bernardo Silva
Matheus Cunha
Nicolas Jackson

Bluto Blutarsky said:

How are we defining "mediocre striker"?

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rarely hits the target unless its a one touch finish 4 yards out and even then it has to bounce perfectly for him to hit or be on his head.

Bluto Blutarsky said:

Richarlison ranks 7th in the league (among players with 900+ minutes) with a goal involvement every 100 minutes.

He trails

Haaland
Salah
Nunez
Watkins
Palmer
Sonny

Richarlison

Partial list of players he is outperforming:

Julian Alvarez
Alexander Isak
Moussa Diaby
Bryan Mbeumo
Bukayo Saka
Eddie Nketiah
Anthony Gordon
Joao Pedro
Raheem Sterling
Dominic Solanke
Jarrod Bowen
Anthony Elanga
Evan Ferguson
Phil Foden
Bernardo Silva
Matheus Cunha
Nicolas Jackson

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I don’t think that’s totally fair, in order for this to be accurate we need to know how those players would perform if put in the same positions Richarlison has been put in. Lots on that list that would start over him.

Top effort from him today prob my man of the match.

yido_number1 said:

Top effort from him today prob my man of the match.

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He’s been brilliant today.

Best game for us by a mile

Tucker said:

He’s been brilliant today.

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Good header and lots of quality defensive work. Don't remember him giving it away much.