Conte hails versatile Richarlison quality after Tottenham debut
Antonio Conte heaped praise on the versatility and quality of Tottenham signing Richarlison after his first appearance for the Premier League side.
Spurs are in South Korea to start their pre-season, where they defeated a select XI from the K-League 6-3 on Wednesday.
Conte has already made five new additions to his side for the upcoming campaign, though Richarlison was the only one of those to feature at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
The Brazil international played 77 minutes before his removal, with attacking partners Harry Kane and home favourite Son Heung-min stealing the show with two goals each.
Richarlison, who scored (10) and assisted (five) more Premier League goals than any other Everton player in the 2021-22 season, operated across the front three in his first showing.
Dejan Kulusevski, Bryan Gil and Lucas Moura are all competing with Richarlison for the final spot in attack for Conte, who hailed numerous features of his new arrival’s debut.
“Today I have seen a lot of positive things about Richy,” Conte told reporters.
“In the first half he played as a number nine and in the second half he played on the right and in behind the striker. He can play in all three positions.
“I think he is strong physically and a good personality, good character, good quality. For Richy he is working and we are working on the tactical aspects with him because he has to go into our idea.
“At the same time we have to work on the physical aspects for him to be fit. But for sure he is a player that gives me important positions up front.
“He’s a player that is a good player, strong and very good to protect the ball and attack the space. I’m very happy that we signed him.”