John Hartson believes that Richarlison is shouldering too much of the responsibility at Everton this season, labelling the Brazilian as the club’s ‘shining light’.
Richarlison came under fire in the first weeks of the new season, having struggled to make his presence felt in Marco Silva’s side.
Now though, Richarlison appears to have settled a bit more, although he has been rather toothless in Everton’s recent Premier League fixtures.
Despite this, the former Watford man has three goals in all competitions for the Toffees, and Silva will be hoping he can make an impact against Manchester City on Saturday.
Hartson, speaking in an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, believes that Everton need to work harder to support the Brazil international, instead of letting him do it all on his own. Hartson said:
I like Richarlison, he’s a player. He’s one of those players in a team where the opportunities aren’t being created for him and he’s trying to do too much on his own.
You’ve got to get your best players into areas where they can affect games.
Richarlison for me is a really, really good talent. He is one of the shining lights for Everton.
Richarlison scored 13 times in the Premier League for Everton last season, topping the club’s goalscoring charts alongside Gylfi Sigurdsson.
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With Richarlison I think an issue is that no one really knows what his best position is. The Brazilian has played on the right-hand side for a while now, but he started for Everton on the left, and had a stint as the lone striker.
Richarlison clearly has so much technical ability, but it doesn’t always feel like he’s naturally being fitted into the squad. Once Silva can nail down where his best position is, the side can be worked around the 22-year old’s strengths.
He definitely is a shining light though, and the potential of having him, Bernard and Alex Iwobi all in-form in that attacking line is an exciting prospect.
