Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has praised the performance of one of his players despite the defeat against Liverpool.

Spurs have suffered their fourth loss in a row in the Premier League. That has hugely dented their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season.

Postecoglou was really disappointed with the result after the game, but the Tottenham manager took some time out to praise one player’s performance at Anfield.

Ange Postecoglou praises Richarlison and explains why he was never going to start vs Liverpool

Richarlison‘s improvement at Tottenham from last season has been huge.

The Brazil international, who joined Spurs from Everton in a £60 million deal (Sky Sports), had a disastrous debut campaign in North London.

Richarlison scored just one goal in the Premier League all season and came under serious criticism from some fans and pundits.

Since Ange Postecoglou‘s arrival, Richarlison has been a lot better.

The 26-year-old has scored 12 goals and provided four assists in 21 starts in all competitions. That is a good return, especially when you consider how poor he was in the previous campaign.

Against Liverpool on Sunday, Richarlison came on as a substitute just after the hour mark, and he looked really good. Even Jermaine Defoe was impressed with his performance.

In his press conference yesterday, Postecoglou was asked about his number nine, and the Australian praised him too. He also revealed that Richarlison was never in contention to start because he’s only just returning from his injury.

Postecoglou said, as per Football London: “It (Richarlison’s performance) was good. I think that was because we had worked hard up until that point and, like I say, when we play our football, and it sounds madness because we were 4-0 down, we still made Liverpool work hard and we do in all our games, the Arsenal game was similar.

“We always tend to finish strong and I think the subs benefit from the hard work of the other guys. I thought Richy was really good with his presence and then the other guys coming on I thought added something for us.”

When asked about the thought process behind bringing Richarlison on while being 4-0 down, the Aussie claimed: “Richy started on Thursday night but he has been out for a fair while so we were never going to play him back-to-back games.

“It was always about trying to get him on the pitch for the last half hour today irrespective of how the game was going.

“Look, at 4-0 do you think you can win? No, but I still felt we could get something out of the game as I knew we’d finish strong because of the work we’d done.

“It’s fair to say before he came on we never looked threatening at all whenever we got into those areas. Him coming on, I thought Sonny improved on the left and Brennan on the right just gave us a bit more of a presence.”

Tottenham’s stance on Richarlison’s future could change

Richarlison has divided opinion since he joined Tottenham.

Some people thinks his best is yet to come in a Spurs shirt, while others think Tottenham must replace him in the 2024 summer transfer window.

A report a few days ago claimed that Tottenham are now open to selling Richarlison. He could be shown the door if a big offer arrives in the summer.

However, the Brazilian showed against Liverpool that he has what it takes to make an impact. He was a threat after coming on and even scored a good goal.

If Richarlison can do the same in Tottenham’s remaining fixtures this season, there is a chance Spurs could change their mind about selling him.