Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Richarlison is now a lot freer in his mind now that he has fixed his niggling pelvic issue, which was bothering him at the start of the season.
Richarlison made his first start for Tottenham since having surgery on his pelvis at the start of last month and the 26-year-old looked visibly more mobile and confident.
A few eyebrows were raised at Postecoglou’s decision to start the Brazilian through the middle and move Son Heung-min back to his natural left-wing birth, but the decision worked a treat.
The Tottenham captain troubled Kieran Trippier all game down the left, creating the home side’s opening two goals while Richarlison made himself a nuisance for the Newcastle centre-backs throughout the 90 minutes.
The striker netted a brace on Sunday, which was double his entire Premier League goal tally from last season, but it was his all-round play that Postecoglou was particularly impressed by.
When asked about Richarlison’s performance, the Australian told Football.London: “Yeah Richy was great. Really important. I thought him and Pape coming in gave us some real energy. We were going to need it today with the midweek fixture and I thought they did that.
“Their general play was excellent but just their general energy was very good and obviously for Richy getting a couple of goals as a striker that was positive for him.”
Richarlison is reborn after undergoing surgery
Postecoglou explained that the forward’s struggles at the start of the season were down to his injury problems, adding that the surgery has helped him both physically and psychologically.
He continued: “Richy was important to us at the start of the year too, but he wasn’t fully fit. I think you could tell he was kind of restricted with his movements. At times we had to play him out wide just to get him through games.
“Since he’s come back, it’s fair to say he feels a lot better physically and I think that’s helped him mentally as well. Great for him to get two goals today, but it wasn’t just his goals, it was his general work rate, energy and physicality.”
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Strikers, in general, need goals to be at their confident best and that is particularly true of Richarlison, who is evidently an emotional guy. These two goals will certainly do wonders for his belief and we might start seeing the best of the 26-year-old in a Spurs shirt over the coming weeks.