Former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino has labelled Tottenham Hotspur’s Richarlison as the worst player of the season.
Richarlison joined the north Londoners from Everton in a deal worth £60m last summer, with the Brazilian signing a five-year contract (Sky Sports).
The forward arrived at Tottenham having played an instrumental role in helping the Toffees avoid relegation last season having netted on ten occasions in the Premier League, however, he has found goals even harder to come by since moving to Spurs with just one top flight effort to his name all season.
The 26-year-old blasted former boss Antonio Conte for not starting him after Spurs limped out of the Champions League with a goalless draw against AC Milan, in March, while adding it has been a “sh*t season” (Daily Mail).
He has also struggled to hold down a regular place in the starting eleven under both Cristian Stellini and Ryan Mason, with the latter recalling him for yesterday’s 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa.
Richarlison was unable to have any real impact on the game and struggled to break Villa’s high defensive line, having been caught offside on a couple of occasions (SofaScore).
Cascarino told talkSPORT: “If you said to me, the worst player this season, the worst player for what he’s got, Richarlison. He’s been a joke this year. I don’t care if he’s been injured or gone away to the World Cup, yesterday he hardly tried a leg, he really looked disinterested.
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“I know that obviously Antonio Conte pulled him out about his performances, or a bit about he’s not played well.
“I played poorly in my career, but there’s one thing a lack of endeavour and effort and playing badly, I can’t believe… Richarlison was the player last year that I felt was responsible as anybody for keeping Everton up, his performances at the end of last season. He hasn’t shown any of that at Spurs.”
He added: “You can play poorly, that happens to footballers, many of us have been there, you have poor times.
“But he looks like to me, he’s had a great move, he was at a very good football club in Everton, then they get a £60million offer in for him, Tottenham have gone after someone to really put pressure on their front three.
“Has he anytime this season put any pressure on their front three to have a starting spot in the team? I’d say no, he’s been hugely disappointing Richarlison.”
SpursWeb Opinion
Tottenham looked more threatening when Dejan Kulusevski came on in place of Richarlison with the Swede going close to scoring, which was certainly more than the Brazilian offered.
Richarlison is such a confidence player and his body language gives the impression that he is currently lacking motivation, who can blame him when the club is lacking any sort of direction at present.
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