Tottenham in trouble as struggling Richarlison pleads for ‘patience’ after Ma…

Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United in pictures

Less than 24 hours after Harry Kane opened his Bundesliga account with a goal and an assist, Tottenham won the battle between What Was and What Might Have Been. An opportunist strike by Pape Matar Sarr and a scruffy Lisandro Martinez own goal decided a game which could have seen a hatful of goals at either end if either side had the England skipper at the spearhead of their attack.

United had been expected to fight for his signature all summer but went instead for Rasmus Hojlund – an unproven talent as far as the Premier League is concerned and one who arrived injured from Atalanta. Tottenham, on the other hand, having finally got what they wanted for their major asset and decided it was money they did not need to reinvest, look in more troubled straits.

For all the euphoria surrounding new manager Ange Postecoglou’s home debut, not least the raw energy and attacking flair of a new-look side under the Australian, one thing was missing. A main man.

Richarlison, tasked with filling the void left by Kane in the absence of any deadline-busting activity from Daniel Levy, is struggling. After failing to hide his displeasure at being substituted late in a game in which he never really got involved, he admitted as much to the comfort of a Brazilian reporter from ESPN.

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“I think the fans have to be a little patient,” Richarlison said. “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 is to take as an example and try to score as many goals as possible with 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. The coach hit my chest, I know he trusts me, too.” Credit to Tottenham, they got to where they needed to be through a collective spirit.

As opposed to Manchester United who spurned a number of good chances in the first half and then failed to compete much at all in the second. Captain Bruno Fernandes had the worst miss a horrendously misdirected header from six yards that flew high and wide from his unmarked position.

It had the United captain looking forlornly for the assistant’s flag to reprieve him. Erik Ten Hag can at least point to the imminent return of Hojlund from injury as a solution to his goalscoring problems.

Saving a late delve into the transfer market – with Romelu Lukaku again being linked with a move despite Tottenham’s earlier denials – Postecoglou will just have to stick with the misfiring Richarlison who has managed just three goals in 37 Premier League games.

“We’ve been training and during training I’ve been doing well, scoring goals,” Richarlison insisted. “I think it’s a matter of time for the goals to come out, there’s the harmony.

“Little by little, we’re getting along. James Maddison is a great player, and little by little I’m gaining rapport with him. But the important thing is that we won the three points.”

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