Antonio Conte has agreed with Richarlison's honest assessment of his own Tottenham form and confirmed that the attacker has apologised for his comments after the club's European elimination. Following Tottenham's Champions League exit at the hands of AC Milan, the Brazilian pulled no punches in his post-match interview as he opened up on his Spurs career to date and not starting in the Round of 16 second leg tie.
The ex-Everton man claimed that he was told he would start against the Rossoneri if he passed a fitness test the day before, only to then find himself on the bench despite proving his fitness. Speaking to the media for the first time since the incident, Conte was quizzed about the 25-year-old and gave his own verdict on the forward's form since his move to north London.
"First of all I watched the interview of Richarlison and he didn’t criticise me," said the head coach. "He said my season is (expletive) and he is right because his season is no good. Because he had a lot of injuries. He started well with us, he then had injury in the Champions League and then he went to World Cup and he had another serious injury. He came back and stayed one month out. Then another injury.
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"He scored zero goals with us, only two goals in Champions League and I think the guy was really honest to tell that his season is not good. His season and our season has still not finished and he has time to recover. If he deserves to play, I give him opportunity otherwise we will play another player.
"Then if you ask me for rest of interview I think that the guy understood very well that he made mistake because when you speak with ‘I, I and I’, not with us, it means you are thinking only about yourself and you are selfish.
For this reason I analysed this situation and to repeat to my players that if we want to build something important, if you want to try to fight for something important, if we want to fight to be competitive and to win a trophy, you have to speak with ‘we’ and not with ‘I”. Because if we speak ‘I, I and I’, it means that you are only thinking only about yourself and not the others and club.
"The guy understood very well and he apologised and for me it was good because I had an opportunity to clarify for another time the importance of the spirit of the team. Because the pitch is important, tactics are important, but the spirit and desire to fight and the fire in your eyes is too much important than the other situation. It was important for me to underline again this situation to my players because for sure in this aspect we have to improve, to improve a lot, to be more team, and to show more spirit positive to help each other especially in negative moments.
"I have good guys but sometimes it is not enough to be a good guy. Sometimes you have to show right desire, sacrifice to yourself to fight to win the game, to win the duals, yeah to be nasty and yeah I think sometimes we are a bit soft.
"But I am the coach and the first responsible about this situation when it happen because doesn't happen every time but I have to improve the team and also I have to improve the spirit of my team. It always happen in the past and I hope to happen also here."
When speaking to TNT Sports Brazil on Wednesday evening, Richarlison said: "I didn't understand... I was playing well, we won against Chelsea and West Ham and suddenly I was on the bench. I played five minutes against Wolves, asked the reason and no-one told me why.
"Yesterday they asked me to take a fitness test in the gym and told me I was going to start today if I passed it. And today I was on the bench, there are things I can't understand.
"There was no explanation again, let's see what he will tell us tomorrow but I'm not silly, I'm a professional that works hard every day and I want to play. There hasn't been enough minutes given to me, this season - and forgive my language - has been (expletive).
"I don't have enough minutes, was injured for a bit, but when I'm on the pitch I give my life. I played well in two games, especially against Chelsea, so I think I should have played tonight, but I can't go on crying about it now."
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