‘He was that bad’: Pundit tears into Tottenham player after win and says he’s now the weak link

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Gabby Agbonlahor has labelled Richarlison the weak link of the new-look Tottenham Hotspur side, and claimed that he was poor against Bournemouth at the weekend.

Agbonlahor was speaking on talkSPORT and suggested that Ange Postecoglou’s side would have won 5-0 at the Vitality Stadium had Harry Kane been leading the line instead of the Brazilian.

Richarlison is definitely coming under some pressure at the start of the campaign. It does not help that he is getting his chance to start regularly for Spurs because of the departure of arguably the club’s greatest ever player.

But there is little question that the 26-year-old has not yet been able to step up. It is the chance he would have been desperate for when he made the move to North London. But he is yet to open his account for Tottenham.

Richarlison identified as weak link in Tottenham side

Of course, Spurs are in a very good place right now. They have made a brilliant start to life under Postecoglou. And the Australian has certainly managed to capture the imagination of the supporters with the brand of football on show.

However, Agbonlahor clearly believes that something needs to be done about Richarlison after he was replaced by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg during the second-half against the Cherries.

“I look at Richarlison, he’s the weak link,” he told talkSPORT. “And I feel that going forward for the rest of the season, you’re going to need a better striker. Harry Kane scores probably a hat-trick today, you win 5-0.

“The chances Richarlison had, the one he ran through on, took too many touches and just his hold-up play is not right. It came to the stage where Ange had to take him off after 55 minutes because he kept giving the ball away. And you didn’t even have a striker to bring on.

“He brought on a defender and midfielder because he was that bad.”

In fairness to Richarlison, he is someone who has definitely proved what he can do in the Premier League. He was outstanding while at Everton before his move to Spurs.

But things just have not clicked over the last 12 months. And that will be a concern for the forward as well as Postecoglou.

It certainly leaves Tottenham with food for thought in the final days of the transfer window. They obviously still have an opportunity to sign a new forward before the deadline passes.

If there is a good time therefore, for Richarlison to have a difficult spell, this is perhaps it while Tottenham have time to do something about it.