Antonio Conte, Tottenham boss, has responded to Richarlison’s fiery television interview, labelling the Brazil international “selfish”.
Richarlison was used as a substitute in Spurs’ Champions League elimination, which followed a 1-0 setback at San Siro with a goalless draw against AC Milan at home.
The former Everton player bemoaned a “shit” season and made reference to his lack of playing time after his 20-minute run-out.
This weekend, Conte’s squad plays Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Ahead of the game, the coach stressed that Richarlison didn’t openly criticize him.
In spite of a difficult few weeks, the former Chelsea manager implied the summer signing had erred with his remarks.
“First of all, I watched the interview of Richarlison. He didn’t criticise me,” Conte said at his press conference on Friday. “He said his season was s***, and he’s right. His season has been not good.”
“He had injuries, played and scored in the Champions League and then went to the World Cup and then had a serious injury. He’s scored no goals for us. I think he was really honest to say his season was not good. His season has not finished yet. If he deserves to play, I’ll give him the opportunity.”
Richarlison has failed to score a goal for his club since coming back from the World Cup.
He last scored in the Champions League’s victory over Marseille back in the fall, and he was a member of the team that Sheffield United defeated to end their FA Cup run.
“For the rest of the interview, I think he (Richarlison) made a mistake,” Anotno Conte continued. “When you speak of ‘I’ and not ‘us’, you are being selfish.”
“I say to my players, ‘if we want to build something important and win a trophy, we have to speak with ‘we’ not with ‘I”, because otherwise you’re thinking of yourself.”
“He made a mistake and he apologised and it was good for me to clarify with the team again about this. In this aspect, we have to improve. We have to be more of a team and show more spirit positive, especially in negative moments.”
Even though Liverpool and Newcastle are ahead of Spurs in the standings going into this weekend’s game, they still have games to play.
Conte will be keen for victory to maintain his team in top-four contention as Forest sits in 14th place, only four points above the relegation positions.
“Sometimes, it’s not enough to be a good guy,” the Italian said ahead of the fixture.
“You have to to show the right desire and fight to win the game and the duels, to be nasty. I think that sometimes we are a bit soft, but I’m the coach and I’m the first responsible for this to happen, and it doesn’t happen every time.”
“I have to improve the team and I have to improve the spirit of my team. It always happened in the past and I hope it happens here.”
What Did Richarlison Say About Antonio Conte?
Tottenham’s Richarlison blasted manager Antonio Conte for not playing him more this year despite his performance in the world cup.
The 25-year-old Brazilian international joined Tottenham from Everton in a £60 million transfer last summer, but he has only started seven Premier League games since then.
Richarlison entered the game in the 70th minute as AC Milan eliminated Spurs from the Champions League on March 8th after he had previously missed time due to injury.
“I should have played”, he admitted.
The following day, after the game, he spoke with Brazilian TV channel TNT Sports and added: “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 [Conte] will tell us tomorrow – but I’m not silly, I’m a professional who works hard every day and I want to play.”
Spurs were ousted from the Champions League in the round of 16 as Milan won the 0-0 match on aggregate to advance.
Richarlison has made 661 Premier League appearances so far this season, but he has only managed to score once, against Marseille in the Champions League in September.
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