Carlo Ancelotti admits a language barrier makes it hard to communicate with Richarlison. The Everton boss says he talks with the Brazilian every day at training and his recent call for the 23-year-old to work harder provoked a response. But Ancelotti concedes that it is “not easy” to talk with Richarlison, not because he doesn’t want to listen, but because they struggle with a common language.
Carlo Ancelotti said “I speak to him every day, I don’t know. To talk with Richarlison is not easy because his English is not good, my Portuguese is so bad, so the communication is not so easy but I try to speak with him every day. What I saw is that he scored two goals. There are two kinds of players, the players that have to run and the players that can run and the player that can decide games by scoring goals. He was decisive for the game and so he didn’t need to run. But when he’s not decisive in the game, he has to run, he knows this. He’s a professional player and he tries to do it all 100%. In this sense no he doesn’t need to be motivated, I think he’s a young player and I think he has a great desire to be at the top but he has to follow step by step this desire to improve.”
Richarlison scored twice in the 5-4 FA Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur in midweek and Ancelotti says the £35m signing knows that in games where he can’t make a scoring contribution, he must ensure he works as hard as possible.