da supremo： Tottenham Hotspur have crashed out of the FA Cup at the fifth-round stage against lower league opposition for the second successive year after they were beaten by Championship outfit Sheffield United on Wednesday night.
da brwin： In the absence of manager Antonio Conte, the Premier League side were beaten by Iliman Ndiaye’s fine 79th-minute solo effort as the Senegalese midfielder weaved his way through Spurs’ backline before firing home past a helpless Fraser Forster.
The Lilywhites coaching team, led by assistant Cristian Stellini, made the bold call to drop leading talisman Harry Kane from the starting XI in what now appears to be a “farcical decision” – as described by iPaper journalist Oliver Young-Myles.
Richarlison started in his place, with Heung-min Son and Lucas Moura for support, and his utter disasterclass at Bramall Lane hardly helped matters…
How did Richarlison do against Sheffield United?
Having cost a whopping club-record fee of around £60m in the summer, the Tottenham faithful are yet to see the levels that the Brazil international hit at his former side Everton, the sort that made chairman Daniel Levy and sporting director Fabio Paratici sanction such an expensive move.
Yet to score in 16 top-flight appearances, it seems as if Richarlison’s poor form rumbled into the FA Cup, where he squandered numerous chances – namely one that nearly hit the corner flag – before being hooked shortly after the hour mark, with the aforementioned Kane finally entering the pitch.
As per Sofascore, the 25-year-old flop failed to get any of his three shots on target, whilst he was only able to muster 13 accurate passes from 21 attempts (67% accuracy) and from 32 touches, often trusting himself instead of playing in the likes of Son and Ivan Perisic.
Richarlison was somewhat bullied by the second-tier side, too.
He contested as many as seven duels, both in the air and on the ground, but was only able to come out on top in two of those, registering a success rate of just 28.5%.
That’s rather disappointing for a £90k-per-week star up against players like Chris Basham and Jack Robinson, who were relegated from the Premier League a little over 18 months ago.
Both he and Son were huge flaws in Spurs’ attack, with neither managing to earn a rating of better than 6.8 by Sofascore. The South Korean, who lasted the whole 90 minutes, managed just one more accurate pass than Richarlison and lost over half of his duels as well.
Such a display from the former Toffees man saw Sheffield Star reporter Danny Hall lambast the frontman, writing on Twitter: “Kane replaces Richarlison who’s had a stinker of a night in all honesty.”
Although they were sentiments echoed by writer Andrew Gaffney, who dubbed him “toothless,” and by journalist Delme Parfitt, who slammed him as “desperately disappointing.”
Indeed, Richarlison’s struggles continued at Bramall Lane and now with Spurs out of the FA Cup, it’ll take a lot to win the fanbase back, heading into the final few months of the campaign.
AND in other news, Paratici could land Son heir in Spurs move for £60m gem who’s a “real box of tricks