Decent player, but nothing like as good as Everton fans like to make out. In a top team that’s regularly challenging for domestic league and CL trophies he’d be a rotation option and no more. But, because of the dearth of quality at the club a significant minority of fans on here big him up into being better than he is and turn a blind eye to his flaws which have the potential to prevent him from reaching his full potential as a player — and hopefully with Everton.
He too often runs into traffic, breaking up promising moves.
How many times a match are DCL’s excellent off the ball runs wasted because Richarlison the receiver, instead of releasing him quickly, has either deliberately delayed, waited for the slightest contact, and thrown himself to the ground or has tried to beat defenders he could have cut out with a pass even though he’s not a particularly good dribbler? Whenever I watch Everton I can’t shake the feeling that the team is not inefficient in attack despite Richarlison’s efforts, but is inefficient in attack in part because he is too often making odd decisions in possession.
Out of possession, he is certainly energetic and excellent at tracking back and good at pressing, but his tackles are so often wildly mistimed that it must be a technical issue. At times he looks like a more dangerous version of Scholes in challenges. The one on Thiago could easily have been a career ender, and in some ways he was a bit fortunate that Pickford’s clumsy tackle on Van Dijk took the spotlight off his challenge, which was far worse.
Am I saying he’s poor? No way. Along with DCL and Digne he’s one of the only Everton players the top teams would be interested in, were they to become available. But, like the others, he’d probably be purchased as a squad player rather than as a nailed on starter. He needs to score more and assist more, quit going to ground so easily and cut out those straight red card challenges. If he manages that then maybe those posts about how “he’s been carrying the team for the past two years” might start to sound a little bit less ridiculous.