Serie A champion Napoli starts his deficiency defense without his top scorer from last season after the Romelu Lukaku injury, but manager Antonio Conte said on Friday that his players can handle everything and would not be looking for apologies.
Lukaku suffered a serious thigh injury in a pre-season-friendly, and Napoli could be a few weeks, if not months without the Belgian striker, but Conte is used to overcome adversity.
Last season, after he saw Victor Osimhen leave at the start of the campaign, Napoli then sold Georgian playmaker Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain in January. Conte continued and landed the Scudetto.
«It is an important injury for a player who had a specific value. He had it in the Scudetto victory last year, but we know very well that these situations can happen during the year,» Conte reporters said prior to Saturday’s game in Sassuolo.
“Something important happened last year, not only in terms of injuries, but it can also happen in the transfer market, something that seems to collapse.
«But these guys showed last year that they can handle everything.
Conte is now confronted with the difficult task of repeating what he achieved in Napoli last season, in a club that never succeeded in retaining a competition title, which failed the most seasons ago before Conte took the lead.
«When Napoli started as favorites after the last Scudetto victory, with Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia and Piotr Zielinski, we finished 10th,» said Conte.
«It must be well imposed in everyone’s thoughts, even the fans and the city, because everyone wins, everyone celebrates and everyone loses in the event.»
Although it is clear that Napoli is looking for another striker, Conte refused to speak about the transfer market, instead on the task that lies for us.
«It will be a difficult championship, strengthened with many teams,» said Conte.
“We have the scudetto on the shirt, and by definition you are one of the favorites, even if you lose all players, you always have what you count to the favorites. But as I said, that’s not enough.
«With what is made available to me, we should try to do our best; we always have to reason and last year we came to something extraordinary.»
Published on August 22, 2025
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