Kieran Richardson

Ten years ago, Kieran Richardson was a rising star at Manchester United and just breaking into the England side as an exciting left winger with pace and skill. Ten years later, Richardson is a fading left back, whose star waned long ago, followed by moves to a struggling Sunderland side, to Fulham, before relegation saw him move to Aston Villa, for another relegation battle, last summer.



Sadly, the only person to blame is Kieran himself. The talent is still there, but the attitude is not. The self-styled 'Mr C' still has the same strut in his step, but no longer has any reason for his swagger.







Richardson is a player that can do something brilliant and then let the ball roll over his foot in one move. One second he shows great control, the next he is unable to control a simple ball and it is bouncing off him like he has never played football before.

He does have a left foot that can produce some great things, and he has a lot of power behind it:





Sadly he is more likely to end up putting the ball into Row Z than the back of the net. The more I watch him, the more I feel his problem is down to concentration issues, as the ability is there one second and then it is gone.



It is not that he has bad games and good games, it is that during each game he will have good moments and terrible ones. It has become especially pronounced in recent seasons as his failings as a winger have seen him mainly play at left back.







There his concentration issues are more pronounced, with him often caught ball watching, or left up field after failing to notice his man run in behind him. He is a decent tackler, it is just that he needs to work on his positioning to ensure he is where he should be to make the tackles.



All in all Richardson has all the makings of an excellent player, quick, strong, rocket shot, excellent left foot, but he is unable to put it together on the pitch for an entire 90 minutes. It is a shame that a talented player is not making the most of those talents.