Mornin' bors.
So, how's Ricky getting on? It's been a few weeks since I last updated this.
Ricky's featured in a few games for St.Etienne since I last posted, both in Ligue1 and the Europa league.
In St.Etienne's most recent Europa league group games, he's had a couple of starts (against Dnipro and Inter Milan). Both were pretty unspectacular, ending 0-0 (in fact, all three of St.Etienne's group games have ended 0-0!). Clearly they are struggling in Europe to get goals without injured first-choice striker Mevlut Erding.
In Ligue1 however, Ricky's been performing a little better. In terms of goals, there's not much to say (he hasn't added to his tally lately, and has still only scored 1 so far), but St.Etienne have continued their impressive form, finding themselves in 4th place. After their disappointing 0-1 loss to Toulouse, they've shored things up with two 1-0 wins of their own (away to Lorient and at home to Metz).
Ricky started against Lorient, providing the vital assist to ensure the win.
He was however, benched for the Metz game, but proved his worth by coming on and again providing the key assist to help St.Etienne to victory.
So it seems St.Etienne are indeed struggling a bit up front, even with Ricky doing his best. He has been praised for his defensive contribution and his work rate, but his finishing is leaving much to be desired (sound familiar?). Fortunately for them, the midfield and defence are playing very well indeed, with four clean sheets in their last 5 games, conceding only one in total.
Once Erding recovers from injury, I can't really see Ricky featuring quite so often (judging from his lack of end product, and St.Etienne's recent poor goal-scoring record), regardless of how hard he's working.
NB: I've updated Ricky's 'stats' in the OP.
Cheers
JK