Richarlison is high-risk high-reward for Everton

The Case Against Richarlison

There is little doubt that Richarlison is a competent shooter, and a useful poacher. However, the jury is out over whether he provides a creative outlet consistently and effectively at the top level.

Last season the Brazilian was a patchy playmaker – creating just six big chances for Watford over the course of the year, according to Premier League stats. This poor performance isn’t surprising when you watch Richarlison play. He often looked isolated for The Hornets – especially in the second half of the season.

To make matters worse, Richarlison actually ended up being a drain on Watford’s chance generation in many of the games where he saw at lot of the ball.

One obvious example came against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in late October. @11tegen11 demonstrates in the tweet below how against Antonio Conte’s men, Richarlison received a steady stream of passes from Troy Deeney, Abedoulaye Doucoure and Jose Holebas, but failed to redistribute the ball effectively.

This is just one of the examples of Richarlison’s dodgy track record in build-up play, and it is important to stress that these poor games fell before and after Marco Silva’s dismissal in equal measure. Even with the Portuguese manager, there are indicators to suggest that Richarlison can be highly wasteful in attack. This does not bode well for an Everton team that is already lacking creative options in the final third.