OPINION
When Richarlison signed for Everton in the summer, many people questioned why they decided to bring the Brazilian to the club in the first place.
He answered those critics with a string of excellent displays that resulted in a number of goals – but as we all know, those fantastic performances were from his preferred position on the wing. Fast forward to now, and boss Marco Silva has resorted to desperate measures to ease his lack of quality strikers.
With Cenk Tosun far from the standard required for the Premier League and Dominic Calvert-Lewin rather inexperienced at this level, Silva switched to playing Richarlison up front – a decision which he has stuck by, despite it not resulting in that many goals.
It is clear to see that Richarlison does not excel when playing up front, as this is not where he is at his most effective – and this was plain as day in their 2-1 defeat to Southampton on Saturday.
The ace looked devoid of all confidence and looked a complete shadow of himself, a prospect that will surely cause Silva to tear his hair out.
Now that Richarlison has proved – numerous times, mind you – that he is not up to the job as a striker, who on earth will the manager turn to next?
He really struggled grappling with the Saints’ centre-backs, and just could not get himself into the game, not matter how hard he tried.
In fact, this is a performance that will certainly cause Silva to sweat buckets, especially if there is no arrivals on the attacking front by January 31.
The 21-year-old lacked any sort of conviction to take on the Southampton defenders all afternoon, something which was basically the icing on the cake in terms of his performance.
Either Silva needs to buy a new striker, or get Richarlison firing again – but whatever he chooses to do, he must do it as soon as possible.