Tottenham Hotspur interim head coach Ryan Mason has admitted that he was left pleased with Richarlison’s performance against Manchester United last night.
The Brazilian was named in Mason’s starting eleven for the Premier League fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of Dejan Kulusevski and was still seeking his first top flight goal for the north Londoners since making the summer switch from Everton.
The forward was making his 22nd league appearance for Tottenham and despite failing to find the back of the net, Mason was pleased with the work ethic and aggression showed by Richarlison.
Richarlison found himself operating on the left-hand-side of the front three with Kane down the middle and Son out on the right and it suited the 25-year-old, who managed to get in behind the United defence on more than one occasion.
Mason spoke prior to the match about his expectation to see aggression from his players as they looked to bounce back from the 6-1 humiliation at Newcastle United on Sunday (Evening Standard).
He told Football.London ahead of the trip to Liverpool when asked about Richarlison’s outing last night: “We spoke about anger and a reaction. Naturally Richy is that type of player. I was very pleased with his performance.”
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He continued: “I thought he helped us, he’d done exactly what I thought he would do. He caused them a lot of problems running in the channels and created a bit of physicality for us.
“Obviously he’s had a bit of time out and you could probably see that in terms of lack of rhythm at times. He’s that type of player that causes a lot of trouble. Once he scores that goal and gets that confidence then we might see a different type of player.”
When asked if Richarlison needs more minutes to be at his best, Mason added: “We’ve got a squad of players that we need to decide the best team to win a game of football. We felt last night Richy the profile of player he is could help us and we spoke before about having a bit of anger and showing a reaction.
“I think Richy naturally is that type of players as he likes having a bit of physical contact and I was very pleased with his performance last night.”
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