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Carragher and Cooper hit out after Richarlison gets clattered for doing keepy-uppies

Carragher and Cooper hit out after Richarlison gets clattered for keepy-uppies during the Tottenham win at Nottingham Forest.

Spurs boss Antonio Conte has laid down the law to Richarlison not to repeat his antics on the pitch after he drew heavy criticism for juggling the ball in the latter stages of the Premier League game on Sunday.

The Brazilian is renowned for his theatrics and sometimes going down too easily, however he also likes to showboat and this appeared again at the City Ground.

Jamie Carragher appeared fed up with some of Richarlison’s behaviour when he came on for the final 15 minutes before eventually providing a brilliant assist for Harry Kane’s second of the match.

With Tottenham 2-0 up, Richarlison got the ball on the far side of the pitch and opted to flick the ball up nonchalantly and began doing some keepy-uppies with it before misplacing a pass to a team-mate.

Richarlison tried to win the ball back and got there first, but not until Brennan Johnson took him out with Neco Williams landing on the former Everton striker.

Carragher appeared to condone the hard foul on Richarlison due to the Tottenham forward’s showboating. “Woah! It does wind people up. You can’t do that. But what is he doing? He just winds people up that lad, Richarlison. He winds me up. What do you expect Johnson to do? You’re not condoning that but…”

“I wouldn’t want my players to do that, what Richarlison did,” the Nottingham Forest manager said. “If that is accepted at Spurs that is nothing to do with me, but it wouldn’t be accepted here.”

Conte, though, leapt to his player’s defence – insisting there was no intent on Richarlison’s part to disrespect Forest.

“He juggled with the ball, no?” Conte said. “It’s a game and you are under pressure. I think it’s OK. I don’t think he wanted to show disrespect to Nottingham Forest, a really good team with a great history.”

Meanwhile, former footballer David Johnson tweeted: “No one comes to the City Ground and take the piss. 🤣”

Clinton Morrison on BBC Radio 5 Live said: “I’d do the same thing, you’re not showboating around me … I’d put him in row Z!”

MORE POST-MATCH REACTION:

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper to Sky Sports: “Disappointed we lost the game. That is always the most important thing. We took loads of learnings from the game. I liked our performance in terms of the build-up. What we didn’t do was threaten their goal enough for the amount of good positions we got in. Disappointed with that.

“It’s a great finish the first goal but we were unlucky with the press. The second goal got a bit open-ended and we gave too many counter-attacks away but we were trying to get back in the game. We lost our markers in the box. We’re not here to take part. We don’t just want to play well, we want to win.

“We got in enough good positions to threaten the goal a lot more than we did. We did some big chances in the second half. We want to play the game we play to threaten. It’s the hardest part of the game so we just haven’t done it well enough. We played really well and I’m happy with that. There’s a lot we can take out of it to grow as a team. But that’s the mentality we had last year and we want to continue it this year.

“I haven’t spoken to Steve Cook or seen it back so I’m sure VAR made the right decision. A brilliant save from Dean Henderson. A good guess on where he wanted to go and a good save. The atmosphere was amazing too. It raised the atmosphere even more with the save.

“We’ve played four games now and we’ve a lot from each one – some good and some not so good. We will stick to the plan, keep doing what we do and be proud to play for the club we play for.”

Tottenham boss Antonio Conte to Sky Sports: “The game was really tough. To play in this stadium is not easy. There is a lot of noise around the pitch. We suffered. They won many duels but at the same time we tried in every moment to exploit the space and create problems. In the second half I thought we did much better to control the game.

“I wanted us to move the ball and to pass more between our midfielders. In the first half we didn’t do it. For Nottingham Forest it was sometimes easy to put pressure on us. It is not easy to come here and get three points and it is another clean sheet for us.

“The players are improving in their resilience and also learning to suffer together and be compact. We need to continue to improve and to find the passes into the lines. At the end I am satisfied with the three points.

“I think that for sure we have to try to continue to improve and especially with the ball, to have more personality and to play. The game is sometimes different because there is a lot of pressure or a lot of noise.

“We were not surprised because I was really clear with them about [the pressure] of Nottingham Forest. Also for this reason we overcame difficult moments in the game. The training ground is one thing then the game can bring a lot of pressure. I know sometimes you play and are calm in training sessions because you can make a mistake. So we need to improve but to come here and to get three points in this way, with another clean sheet, is another good step for my team.

“We are working in this aspect also. It is important the mentality. If you are strong mentally you survive in this type of situation. If you are weak you suffer difficult situations. We have to continue to work. We have been working only nine months. We try to improve the squad. We have to face several competitions. The road is long for us. The team are in front of us.

“We want to be competitive and to fight. There is only one way and that is to continue to work, to improve confidence and believe in ourselves. Sometimes only when you win something you get a belief and confidence because you know you are a winner. We are doing well and we have started this part. For sure it is not easy.”

More from Harry Kane to Sky Sports on his first goal: “We knew the way they like to press we would have 3v3 chances a lot and it was a bit of a scruffy finish but they go in. The touch allowed me to open it up. Thankfully it went in.”

On the penalty and whether Steve Cook should have been sent off: “If this isn’t denying a goalscoring opportunity then I don’t know what is. The game is over but I’m surprised with the decision.

“I have practised a lot against Dean Henderson at England but I was pretty focused with what I wanted to do on the penalty. I was trying to go high and didn’t quite get it how I wanted it to. Fair play to him, he made a great save. He is a good shot-stopper and I thought he played fantastic for them today. Thankfully it didn’t matter for us!”

On his second goal: “Richarlison put a great delivery in and those are always nice to get on the end of and head it home.”

On competition for places between Son Heung-min and Richarlison: “If you want to be a top team you have to compete for every position and I think that’s what we have got now. We will need everyone. Of course Son will be frustrated not to have scored so far this season but he is an important player for us. Also, when players are not quite at it you need players to come off the bench and have an impact and Richarlison is doing that.”

Twitter users gave their thoughts after Carragher and Cooper hit out while Richarlison gets clattered by Brennan Johnson for doing keepy-uppies…

@TomToffee9: Nothing wrong with it at all. He wasted a bit of time and even won his team the foul.

@Deadwing51: He was drawing in fouls at a time when Forest should have been pushing for a goal. Just so very irritating to play against. But every team needs a player like that.

@GrahamHehir: A thing of beauty. Given everyone knows he will hit the deck to try and buy a free or get a player booked I’ve never understood why more don’t go through him. I mean if your going to get carded make it worthwhile.

@Sean__OLeary: I’m appalled that you’re not appalled. That you think it’s ok to take a player out like that, possibly a career ending tackle. It was very high. So what if he was showboating? Do we not want to be entertained now? What next? No ‘worldies’ cause it’s showboating?

@ajholland7: Taking the piss out of your fellow professionals is frowned upon, scoring worldies isn’t the same thing..

@1865FTID: Don’t disrespect another team on their pitch. Shame it didn’t hurt him more

@larssivertsen: I mean, his team is chasing the game and by committing a pointless foul Johnson both allowed Tottenham to keep possession and gave them a chance to waste some time. Looks like the big man on social media afterwards though, so that’s a win I guess 🤷‍♂️

@MikeGNolan: I don’t understand what Cooper is actually saying about Richarlison…”It wouldn’t be accepted here”. So you would fine him? Take him off? Sell him? Would you do the same to Lingard if he scored the winner with a rabona? Are step overs banned at Forest? Where is the line???

@Louis13369598: He got what was coming to him. Well done brennan for snapping him

@Gl3nnC77: Obviously it’s not accepted in the Johnson household either 💪

@matt0675: That is a very Cloughesque response from Cooper 🤩

@88MadDog88: Too right. That was so disrespectful. What a horrible player.

@nma2110: No class. I’m no Liverpool fan but they didn’t do anything like that yesterday against Bournemouth. Richarlison was the same at Everton.

@BrandonnNFFC: Got what he deserves for it too, shame it wasn’t McKenna going through him

@D1V1D3DxFLASH1: Imagine telling a Brazilian player not too showboat lol it’s literally in there DNA

@Romsey_squib: Absolute respect 🫡 to Johnson the forest lad for nailing Richarlison 👏 any footballer at any level who showboats like that has to accept a whack maybe a serious injury #NFFC #NFOTOT #Spurs

@ForestTill1Die: Well done Brennan Johnson. Serves Richarlison right.

@mattywilson0101: Brennan Johnson doing what every football fan in England would like to do to Richarlison🤣

@VVDGLOBE: Brennan Johnson flattening richarlison for showboating is the best thing I’ve seen all weekend #NOTTOT

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