Conte rage after Di Lorenzo injury and Napoli status: ‘Bigger squad or it’s suicide’

Antonio Conte confirms Giovanni Di Lorenzo has probably torn his ACL, then lashes out angrily at Napoli directors, UEFA and more. ‘We need a bigger squad, otherwise it’s suicide.’

The Partenopei were in dire need of a boost after back-to-back defeats against Juventus in Serie A and Chelsea in the Champions League, the latter sealing their early elimination.

Antonio Vergara scored his first senior Napoli goal in that midweek tie and this evening got his first in Serie A, followed by Miguel Gutierrez for a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina.

There was bad news too for Napoli, as captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo was stretchered off in agony after his left knee seemed to hyper-extend, prompting fears of ligament damage.

“There’s not much we can say, it’s game upon game upon game, we have to keep using players who ought to be rested and yet can’t, it leads to these situations,” Conte told DAZN Italia.

“I tore my cruciate ligament, I know it’s a traumatic injury. I continue to say playing all these matches, it kills the players and kills football.

“Now there are restrictions on who you can have in the squad, and ours is even smaller because we don’t have many players from the youth academy, and the ones we do have want to go out on loan to play more regularly.

“We pulled Vergara out the hat, then there are age limits, but if we have to play 60 games per year, we need a bigger squad, otherwise it’s suicide.”

Di Lorenzo has not had the tests yet, but Conte suggests the initial feedback from the medical staff is very bad indeed.

“The sensation is he’s done serious damage to his knee and it’s the cruciate ligament. It’s nasty. You know full well what Di Lorenzo means for us.

“People say I complain, but we’re doing anything but complaining considering this is an infinite series of injuries. They are bad injuries too, not just muscular ones for 2-4 weeks out, these are serious.

“We are managing to plug the holes because these lads are doing extraordinary things. Once again, there weren’t many options on the bench.”

Conte then lashed out at the Napoli hierarchy, but at the football calendar in general with the expanded Champions League and Supercoppa Italiana.

“Clubs don’t seem to understand it’s like a dog chasing its own tail. You fight to qualify for all these tournaments to get more money, but it’s ephemeral, because the more competitions you are in, the more players you have to buy, the more the wage bill goes up.

“If they don’t understand that, then football will go in a bad direction and leads to this sort of thing. I don’t just mean Napoli, I am speaking out in general to defend players and it’s a shame everyone turns their backs on players in favour of the clubs, leagues, UEFA, etc. I say this as an ex-player.”

This is a team already stretched thin without Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, David Neres, Matteo Politano, Amir Rrahmani, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Kevin De Bruyne and Billy Gilmour.

When Di Lorenzo was injured, why did Conte introduce Mathias Olivera rather than centre-back Sam Beukema?

“I introduced Mathias because right now he gives me more guarantees than Beukema, that’s it,” shrugged the Napoli coach.

“We are talking about a team trying to do its best with what we have at our disposal. Fortunately, we picked up these points, but if the season had started today and we had this squad, what position do you think Napoli would be challenging for? Be realistic.

“We have the Coppa Italia, we want to qualify for Europe, but it becomes very difficult, especially as the other clubs are bringing in reinforcements, while we are under a transfer embargo.

“That is just fantastic,” added Conte sarcastically. “We are the only club running at a profit of €240m and are banned from making transfers.

“Honestly, I am really p***ed off about Di Lorenzo, so it’s best we wrap this up or I’ll say something else and get into trouble.”