Tottenham Hotspur scraped and survived enough to notch a point on the road against Brighton on Matchday 5 of the Premier League, but, to be quite frank, there was nothing impressive about this match. And to be even blunter, Spurs are honestly fortunate they even got anything out of this game.
Both goals Spurs scored were more down to fortune than quality, whereas Brighton were much more lively on the counterattack. Were it not for the world-class center back partnership bailing them out again, the disjointed performances on the pitch by the midfield and attack would be criticized much more heavily.
As it stands, even Spurs loan goal-scorer of the day, Richarlison, isn't absolved of criticism, as he was astoundingly below-average in his hold-up play. Tottenham supporters could only cringe while watching Richy spend more time arguing with officials, clutching his back, or otherwise engaging in theatrics as opposed to holding the ball competently and finding his teammates.
Of course, it didn't help that the rest of his teammates were just as poor as he was for most of the match. That being said, Richarlison did not look like a true focal point for the Tottenham attack, and ever since scoring two goals against Burnley and assisting another against Manchester City, he's been highly underwhelming.
Tottenham learned a valuable lesson about Richarlison
So how does Tottenham manager get the "good" Richarlison to show up again? Simply put, he has to be honest and take stock of this Brighton game, because it was a perfect microcosm of what Richarlison isn't and has never been - neither for Spurs nor even for Everton.
He is not an out-and-out striker. Richarlison is not somebody you can play up top with creative wingers like Wilson Odobert and Mohammed Kudus and then expect that you are going to go ahead and win most weeks in the Premier League with that lineup. He's not someone who is going to hold play up, and if he is going to play as a No. 9 in a 4-3-3 formation, then Spurs are going to have to play inverted goal-scoring wingers who can interchange with him.
Actually, some of Richarlison's best work against Brighton came when he had the ball at his feet out wide or was drawing out defenders. It's just that he then had nobody to combine with interiorly, or he would end up isolating himself.
To combat that, Tottenham are going to need to go for a different profile on the left wing or play Richarlison up top with a different striker. Frank can either play Richarlison with Randal Kolo Muani or Dominic Solanke in a two-striker system, or he can experiment with Kolo Muani on the left wing as a support striker in a 4-3-3. In the case of Solanke, he could even make Richarlison the wider forward instead of Kolo Muani.
Either way, Richarlison can't be the lone wolf. We saw against PSG, Burnley, and Manchester City that there is still a very good footballer in the Brazilian international, and he wasn't all awful against Brighton either. But the flaws are not a fluke, rather a warning sign for Frank and Spurs to heed when it comes to actually getting the best out of player who has still not come close to living up to his price tag.