Last year, in more than one interview, Everton’s Richarlison spoke of his “dream” of playing in the Champions League.
It’s an ambition many young stars have, yet the form of the forward since his arrival at Goodison Park up until that point had indicated that dream could well come true. The Brazilian was even linked with a move to Barcelona in the early months of 2020.
During that summer, he talked about those rumours, stating it was Carlo Ancelotti who’d asked him to hold on at the club for at least another season in order to try and achieve his European aspirations with Everton.
Prior to the start of this campaign, Richarlison said, “Everything has been talked about, (Ancelotti) already told me he's counting on me for another season. He asked me to hold on a little.”
“But it all depends. If a good proposal arrives, we sit down and talk. It's part of football. We are still talking about these details, sorting it out. He's bringing in new players. And then let's sit down and talk. But I think I can hold on for another season.”
The forward of course stayed and was set to be an integral part of the campaign for Everton.
You’d even be forgiven for expecting to see the best version of the 24-year-old too, particularly given that he’d spoken so openly about his ambitions of playing for one of European’s elite.
Yet it’s fair to say as we approach the penultimate game of the campaign that this has hardly been the case.
He again failed to find the back of the net in Everton’s shambolic 1-0 home defeat to bottom of the table Sheffield United, making it 11 straight league games in which the Brazilian has failed to score.
Although the forward has netted 14 goals in total this season, which looks a decent enough return on paper, when you remove goals within League Cup and FA Cup appearances, that total dwindles to just six, one of which was a penalty.
The fault for this unremarkable Premier League return shouldn’t be attributed to him alone, after all, according to the underlying numbers, Everton are one of the least impressive attacking sides in the league.
They rank inside the league’s bottom six in terms of the fewest number of shots attempted and touches inside the opposition’s penalty area per 90, both things sure to hinder the attacking capabilities of Richarlison.
Yet even so, he’s still been managed an average of 2.57 shots per 90 this season which ranks inside the top 30 across the league and is also an average higher than names such as Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden and Mason Mount.
Shooting a reasonable amount but not retuning many goals does raise questions about the efficiency of the forward’s finishing, and his Expected Goals (xG) numbers would illustrate that he’s most definitely been below-par this season.
Removing his solitary penalty at Crystal Palace, Richarlison has a non-penalty xG total of 10.3 so far. This means in basic terms that an average forward would have been expected to score around ten goals based on the quality of chances he’s been bestowed.
Therefore his return of just five non-penalty goals represents an underperformance of 5.3 which is the second-worst across the whole division behind only Jamie Vardy.
Of course, there’s more to his game than simply scoring goals, and it can’t be denied he’s one of the more hardworking forwards across the division, regularly topping the metrics for Everton’s attackers in terms of things like tackles and pressures made off the ball.
Yet to thrive playing as an attacker for an elite side, you above all else need to deliver goals and his record this season, particularly when compared against his underlying numbers, suggests that he hasn’t done that enough.
Perhaps last summer’s transfer speculation had an adverse impact on the 24-year-old, rather than a positive and motivating one.
His overall ceiling remains high, meaning that a move away from Goodison Park could still come to fruition in the future, should he still want it.
Yet, having been a key player who’s too often not delivered within a campaign that will most likely be reflected on as a failure, the offers may not come as thick and as fast as he’d have anticipated 12 months ago.
