One Tottenham forward has been widely criticised this season, but he is near the top of one key attacking stat across the Premier League.
Several things appear to be lacking within the current Spurs side, and one of those is a lack of a world-class finisher up front.
Tottenham fans who have been used to seeing Harry Kane and Heung-min Son finish off half-chances for a decade are now having to adjust to the reality of not having strikers of that calibre leading the line.
Thomas Frank’s men have not been helped by the fact that Dominic Solanke’s injury proved much more complicated than initially thought, while new man Randal Kolo Muani is only starting to find his feet now after going through his own injury troubles.
Tottenham forward Richarlison is among the best in key metric
Even though Richarlison is Tottenham’s top goalscorer this season with six strikes to his name across all competitions, the general perception of the fan base has been that the Brazilian has been in poor form.
However, WhoScored have now revealed that the 28-year-old has been one of the best in the Premier League at outperforming his xG.
Only Brighton’s Danny Welbeck has outperformed his xG by a bigger margin than Richarlison has this campaign.
This stat points to a bigger problem with Spurs
The fact that Richarlison has only scored five Premier League goals but has had to outperform xG to this degree to do it points to a clear problem with Spurs.
It is thus Thomas Frank’s side are not able to fashion enough chances for their forwards.
An increasing number of fans are now starting to wonder if that is a feature, not a bug, of Frank’s tactics, with the Lilywhites showing very little evidence this season that they are capable of breaking down opposition defences consistently.