Tottenham Hotspur ace Richarlison has been slammed by Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson for his showboating at the weekend.
Merson has been writing for Sportskeeda in his latest column previewing this week’s domestic games but couldn’t resist looking back at Sunday’s action.
Spurs sealed all three points at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest to take them up to third in the table with 10 points from a possible 12.
However, an incident involving Richarlison made the headlines after the game as the Brazilian was wiped out by Brennan Johnson after doing some keepy-ups late on in the game.
Jamie Carragher has also spoken openly about his disapproval of the Brazilian’s actions, and Merson has now offered his thoughts on what the new Spurs signing did.
He wrote: “Tottenham striker Richarlison was in the news recently for being taken out by Brennan Johnson after a bit of showboating in the dying embers of the game against Forest.
“I don’t see the need for players to showboat, to be honest – they all try to be Neymar or something and attempt to take the mickey out of opposition players. Fair play to Johnson for taking him out, that’s my opinion of the situation.”
TIF Thoughts on Merson’s comments…
We are really surprised to see just how much this has infuriated people. This is something which has almost overshadowed the game itself and we think some of the comments have been surprising.
Is all of the Richarlison criticism warranted?
Yes
No
And this one by Merson is particularly surprising. If people have an issue with Richarlison’s showboating, that is fair enough, however, applauding the rash tackle from Johnson is another thing.
Whether you liked the Brazilian’s keepy-ups or not, the challenge from Johnson certainly had malice behind it and could have injured Richarlison, so to hear that type of action hailed and some light-hearted showboating slammed is rather odd.
Thank you Paul Merson for sticking up for Richarlson, at least Merson said rightly everyone is entitled to their view but to praise someone like Johnson for wiping out Richarlison which could cause serious injury for absolutely no reason you cannot agree to that. Johnson could have caused serious injury and possibly a red card for violent conduct. is that the way you want this game to go. we should’ve been praising how well Nottingham Forest played not talking about his cynical foul and unfair play. Jamie Carragher you are a TV pundit and young adults and children listen to you. please don’t commentate like that keep your silly thoughts to yourself because people look up to you and might just copy what you say. you should not be praising violence.