Thomas Frank has backed Richarlison to help Tottenham fill the void left by Harry Kane.
Spurs are adapting to life without the England captain after his £100m move to Bayern Munich on the eve of the new season, with Kane making his debut for Thomas Tuchel’s side in the German Super Cup defeat to RB Leipzig.
For Tottenham, the campaign got up and running on Sunday with an entertaining 2-2 draw away to Brentford. Cristian Romero headed the visitors in front and Emerson Royal fired home just before the break, with Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa scoring for the Bees in between those goals.
As expected, Richarlison led the line for Spurs in Ange Postecoglou’s first competitive match in charge of the club, though the Brazilian was unable to have a significant influence on the match.
Richarlison arrived in north London from Everton for £60m last summer, but scored just one Premier League goal in 27 appearances during a frustrating first season at the club.
However, Brentford boss Frank believes the 26-year-old will have a far more successful campaign for Spurs should he be given a regular run in the side leading the line.
“It was England’s number nine, replaced by Brazil’s number nine,” Frank told Sky Sports.
“He’s a very good player, Richarlison, and I back him to score a lot of goals this season.”
New Tottenham captain Heung-min Son could be used in a central role up front instead, potentially with Manor Solomon then coming into the side out wide, but Postecoglou praised Richarlison’s efforts against Brentford despite his lack of reward.
“I thought we could have been a little bit more direct to him and look for him a little bit more,” the Spurs boss said.
“He was making some good runs and he was working hard. He had a couple of half-opportunities but I thought we could have created more for him.
“The key for us with Richy is to keep supporting him because he’s working awfully hard for the team in a defensive sense and when we get in that front third I thought we didn’t look enough for him today.
“I have got a lot of time for him. He’s a striker and he’s got a lot of great attributes and he will always work hard for the team and that’s a good starting point for me.”
