Tottenham have made the worst goalscoring start to a league season in the club’s history, but Roberto De Zerbi still has no plans to bring Richarlison back into his first-team squad.
Spurs have failed to score in their opening four Premier League matches.
Richarlison remains outside De Zerbi’s plans and will not be involved against Liverpool in the League Cup either.
His Premier League registration status does not prevent him playing in that competition.
De Zerbi says he repeatedly tried to persuade the Brazilian striker to remain at Tottenham during the summer, but Richarlison wanted to leave.
The manager has little interest in reopening the argument.
“I can’t go every day to pray for him to stay.”
Something has to give
Leaving out a player who wants to leave is hardly unusual.
Doing it while your team goes through the longest opening goal drought in Tottenham’s history makes the decision considerably harder to ignore.
De Zerbi is backing the forwards who committed themselves to his squad.
Four Premier League matches have produced no goals.
Richarlison may not be the solution to Tottenham’s attacking problems.
For now, De Zerbi appears determined not to find out.
Sources
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