Antonio Conte on Richarlison's statements: He said my season is s*** and he’s right

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Richarlison shocked many with his statement after the match against AC Milan. The Brazilian was dissatisfied with the minutes he played on the field and believes he deserved more. It seems that the Brazilian did not want to be indirect, but said everything he thought.

“It’s what I didn’t understand [being a substitute]. I arrived well, in good form, two victories against West Ham and Chelsea.
All of a sudden, I’m on the bench, against Wolverhampton [a 1-0 defeat] I was put on for five minutes.

I asked why, they didn’t tell me anything.
And, yesterday, they asked me to do a test in the academy, so that if I was well I would play the game, and when the game arrived, they left me on the bench.
These are things you can’t understand.

Let’s see what he says tomorrow, but I’m also no fool, I’m a professional, I work all day and I want to play. Missing minutes, missing time.
This season, sorry for the word, it is a s***, because I don’t have minutes, I suffered a little with the injury.

But, when I enter the field, I give my life. I came off the back of two good games, I think it’s that, I think that I should have played and I don’t have to cry about it”. - Richarlison said, as quoted by eurosport.com

Antonio Conte reacted

Antonio Conte did not remain deaf to such statements.

However, the Italian believes that Richarlison did not directly criticize anyone. Basically, he's unhappy with how he's been playing this season, and injuries have ruined a lot of things. “I watched the interview of Richarlison, he didn’t criticise me.

He said my season is s*** and he’s right. His season is not good because he had a lot of injuries.
He started well with us, [but] he has an injury in the Champions League, then he went to the World Cup and then he had another injury, serious.

He came back, stayed one month out, and then another injury.
He’s scored zero goals with us, only two goals in [the] Champions League,” Conte added. “I think the guy was really honest, to tell [us] that his season is not good.
His season, our season, has still not finished.

He has the time to recover and if he deserves to play I’ll give him the opportunity otherwise we play another player”.