Remember before the Merseyside Derby a few months back when Richarlison stoked the fires by criticising Virgil Van Dijk for no reason and suggesting there are plenty of centre-backs better than him?
He even boasted that he had once dribbled past him – which to this day is the most cringeworthy brag we’ve ever heard from a professional footballer.
And now Everton’s Brazilian has spoken about the Derby game, which was a drab 0-0 on our return to action following football’s suspension – claiming it was all part of a tactic to time-waste.
“Of course I was never going to back down,” he said, reported in the Mirror. “There was a disagreement during the game, which ended up in the typical heated way.
“I was also having the fight to waste time, and the Liverpool players did not like it. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez tried to get involved.
“But it was nothing out of the ordinary. In the whole fight we wasted five minutes, which was good for the team. I said (to Van Dijk) in Portuguese: ‘who do you think you are?’
“They were defending their colours and we were defending ours, it was a typical derby.”
Time-wasting when you’re drawing at home and have nothing to play for is pretty pathetic, in all honesty, but at least his side were not on the end of another Merseyside Derby humbling, so good for him!
Richarlison is a good player, but he needs to pick his battles. Everton are a rival in name only – not a competitive one – and the lad should learn his place in the food chain.
Van Dijk is a legend of the game and he’s a potentially good player. The difference in levels is staggering.