Spurs signed Richarlison as a ready-made Premier League star — but where does he fit?

When Tottenham Hotspur paid a club-record £60million for Richarlison last summer, it felt like money well spent in today’s financial market.

Spurs were buying a “ready-made” Premier League player, one who had dragged Everton kicking and screaming to improbable survival under Frank Lampard. They were getting a forward with a decent goals record coming into his prime at 25, a player who even when not fully fit or at his best could generate something special.

With Antonio Conte looking to help Spurs transition over several transfer windows to a team with a big-club mentality, i.e. not just having a first XI with a few bench options but genuine rotation and top-level alternatives in all positions, Richarlison’s addition made perfect sense.

It has not gone to plan. Via a cocktail of injuries, indifferent form, lack of rhythm and missed opportunities, Richarlison has yet to score a Premier League goal for Spurs.

He has made 15 league appearances, albeit only six starts and 570 minutes (which equates to just over six full games); had 16 shots; and accumulated an expected goals (xG) figure of 2.0… but no goals. His only goals in a Spurs shirt (from 21 appearances in all competitions and 946 minutes) came on September 7 in a Champions League tie against Marseille, five months and 17 days ago.

The lack of goals is a concern but not, given the shortage of minutes, the main worry.

Of more importance would be that there have been few clues as to how Richarlison fits into Conte’s Spurs.

When he was becoming the street-fighting Everton saviour who was said to embody the club’s spirit more than any other player, despite being born half a world away, he was considered to be a talisman.

When he was blossoming into Brazil’s No 9 he was seen as “one in 200 million”.

Neither of those descriptions has been apt in his first season at Spurs.

You could not even describe him as the polarising figure he has been for club and country, with his penchant for diving or general shithousery (save for some keepy-uppies at Nottingham Forest at the start of the season).

It does seem slightly odd that when looking to improve the XI and the squad with top-quality additions for big money, Spurs chose to break their transfer record on someone whose two main positions on the field are where Harry Kane and Son Heung-min play.

Conte has recently described how Kane, Son and Hugo Lloris are his three most indispensable players. Son’s form was ghastly either side of the World Cup but it took weeks of poor performances before he was finally dropped against West Ham United on Sunday, such is the faith Conte has in the South Korea forward.

Richarlison, as assistant Cristian Stellini said after the 2-0 win in which Son came off the bench to score, is now fully fit, but still had to wait.

“Sonny played a lot of games this season and sometimes you have to manage the fatigue and when you have some problems, you can not perform at 100 per cent,” he said.

“Now, we are happy because Richarlison is back. In the first half, we want to use the player who can perform 100 per cent.”

He may have been able to perform in terms of fitness and mobility, but Richarlison did not take his chance. He touched the ball 26 times, played 13 passes, had a couple of shots and, completely understandably in what was his first start since the World Cup where he picked up a hamstring strain, looked disjointed and out of kilter with his team-mates.

This was a shame because it was only the third time he had played on the left of a front three, a position many would regard as his most effective. Most of the time this season he has played as a right forward (particularly when Dejan Kulusevski was injured before the World Cup). Of Richarlison’s 260 career appearances, only 44 have come in this position (11 for Spurs).

But on the left should work, particularly alongside Kane. He has dovetailed with a tall, physical front-man who is good with his back-to-goal before, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin at Everton.

Calvert-Lewin would often come deep to win a flick-on aimed at Richarlison, or turn and look to play him in with a through ball. Last season, with Calvert-Lewin injured, he played centrally, off the last man or working the channels, but always pressing and harassing centre-backs who were not allowed a moment’s peace. He has never been a traditional winger, but with his power, scruff-of-the-neck aggression and shooting ability, he can cause all sorts of problems cutting into the box.

Those attributes, plus his commitment, bloodlust attitude and his adaptability to play across a front three, make him an ideal Conte player in theory. But was he Conte’s choice?

It is believed Daniel Levy did a lot of the running for the deal. A source close to the transfer said Levy recognised before pretty much any other Premier League club that Everton would be in financial peril last summer and would be willing to sell Richarlison for a fair price. It felt like an opportunistic move rather than one that was the result of 12 months of hard scouting and a realisation that Richarlison was the perfect fit.

However, that £60million ($72.4m) fee is only good value if Richarlison repays Spurs in performances, goals, or by being sold on for a sizeable profit. Neither of these will happen if he is not in the team. And then we come back to Kane and Son, the (almost) undroppables playing in Richarlison’s best positions. It is a head-scratcher.

Against West Ham, there was the odd glimpse of something tangible between Richarlison and Kane. At least when Kane drifted deep to get involved in the play, Spurs still had a physical and aerial threat in the box, which is not the case when Son plays.

Kane came deep here to look for the ball over the top, spotting Richarlison’s run.

It was just a tad too heavy for the Brazil forward to latch onto first time.

He managed to get a shot away, but from a tight angle and Lukasz Fabianski made the save.

His other shot came early in the second half via a high turnover. Richarlison takes up a great position on the edge of the box and is picked out by Kulusevski.

However, the tame shot was straight at Fabianski.

His build-up play was not great either. This set the tone in the opening seconds, with Richarlison looking to find wing-back Ben Davies.

But playing it straight out of play.

Later, Richarlison fed a ball into Kane and received a return pass…

… then hit the ball out of play. With Kulusevski running on and Emerson Royal not moving, it is not clear what his intention was.

There are mitigating circumstances here given Richarlison’s lack of football recently. Davies was Richarlison’s partner on the left side of Spurs’ attack, but it was the first time the Welshman had played in that position under Conte, so there is rustiness there (albeit Davies played well and set up the opening goal for Royal).

“Richy is one of these players who can give us something nasty,” Conte said recently. “You feel his presence on the pitch, but I repeat: Richy is a player who needs to work, to have more work compared to his team-mates because the injury was serious.”

“He’s an important player for us.”

Not yet he’s not. And unless Richarlison gets a prolonged run of games to build up the sharpness and rhythm he needs, it is hard to see where this ready-made Premier League star fits in at Spurs.

(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)