Even though Tottenham Hotspur managed to beat Manchester United on Saturday, Spurs striker Richarlison was clearly not happy to be substituted.
The home side were winning 1-0, and in the 70th minute, Ange Postecoglou replaced the Brazilian with Ivan Perisic.
Everything went well in the end, with Tottenham scoring one more and beating Manchester United 2-0. And when speaking to ESPN Brasil, Richarlison explained his feelings.
The player thought that he wasn’t getting enough chances from his teammates, and was angry to leave the pitch with no big opportunities to score.
“It was more with myself, because I didn’t get any ball there to shoot. As a striker, I have to receive the ball, I have to be close to the goal. Today I didn’t receive any ball there, so I was more upset about that, it wasn’t for the substitution or anything,” Richarlison told ESPN Brasil’s Natali Gedra.
The Brazilian also talked about his growing relationship with James Maddison: “Little by little, we’re getting along, Maddison is a great player, and little by little I’m gaining rapport with him. During training, we’ve been making a good partnership. Little by little, I think the goals will come, I need to be calm. The important thing is that we won the three points.”
Richarlison then talked about his new importance in the squad since Harry Kane left for Bayern Munich. He understands that fans will demand more goals from him, and he’ll spend the season trying to fulfil their expectations.
“We’ve been training, during training I’ve been doing well, scoring goals, I think it’s a matter of time for the goals to come out, there’s the chemistry. I think the fans have to be a little patient, it’s not easy to replace an idol like Harry Kane, that time is normal. Like it or not, a match in which I don’t score a goal, they’re going to miss him, he’s a guy who scored more than 200 goals for the club. It’s taking that as an example and trying to score as many goals as possible in a Tottenham shirt.”
“For sure, that’s why Tottenham paid dearly for me. That’s why they put me here, now it’s up to me, I have to do the job, I know my responsibility.”
Following the draw against Brentford and the win over Manchester United, Tottenham have had a fairly good start with Postecoglou so far. Their next challenge is on Saturday, when they take a trip to face Bournemouth away.
