Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has agreed with Richarlison's assessment that the forward has been "s***" in his debut season with the club.
The former Everton man is yet to score a Premier League goal for the North London giants and has just two goals and three assists to boast from 25 appearances in all competitions.
Richarlison has been handed fleeting opportunities in the first XI amid Son Heung-min's drop-off in form, but he has only started seven Premier League games, with Dejan Kulusevski and Harry Kane above him in the pecking order.
Since starting in wins over West Ham United and Chelsea, Richarlison has been demoted back down to the bench for defeats to Wolverhampton Wanderers and AC Milan, and he hit out at the decision to demote him from the starting lineup in the wake of their Champions League exit.
"I didn't understand...I was playing well, we won against Chelsea and West Ham and suddenly I was on the bench," Richarlison told TNT Sports Brazil. "I played five minutes against Wolves, asked the reason and no-one told me why.
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"There hasn't been enough minutes given to me, this season - and forgive my language - has been shit. 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 last night, but I can't go on crying about it now."
When asked about Richarlison's comments in Friday's press conference, Conte agreed with the attacker's blunt assessment of his campaign but denied that the Brazil international had criticised him directly.
"First of all I watched the interview of Richarlison and he didn't criticise me. He said my season is s*** and he is right because his season is no good. Because he had a lot of injuries," football.london quotes Conte as saying.
"He started well with us, he then had an injury in the Champions League and then he went to the World Cup and he had another serious injury. He came back and stayed one month out. Then another injury.
"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.
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"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."
Nevertheless, Conte welcomed Richarlison's apology for the interview, and he admitted that he wants his players - who are prone to being "a bit soft" - to show a streak of nastiness.
"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," Conte added.
"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 duels, yeah to be nasty and yeah I think sometimes we are a bit soft."
Tottenham remain fourth in the Premier League table ahead of Saturday's visit of Nottingham Forest, but they could be knocked down to fifth by the time that they kick off if Liverpool prevail at Bournemouth.
Ben Knapton
