Napoli climbed to third in Serie A with a 2-1 home victory over Fiorentina, yet Antonio Conte again warned that the squad is too thin. The success eased some pressure after the Champions League exit to Chelsea, but a worrying knee injury for Giovanni Di Lorenzo overshadowed the night.
The match at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona saw goals from Antonio Vergara and Miguel Gutierrez secure all three points against relegation-threatened Fiorentina. However, Di Lorenzo left the pitch midway through the first half with what appeared to be a serious knee problem, adding to Napoli's growing fitness issues.
Conte has dealt with long-term absences throughout the season, with Romelu Lukaku only recently returning from injury and Kevin De Bruyne still unavailable.
The coach argued that the squad is not large enough to sustain challenges in Serie A and the Champions League, especially with the current match schedule.
Discussing fixture congestion and the impact on Napoli players, Conte said: "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, as quoted by Football Italia.
Conte linked Di Lorenzo's setback to the wider issue of overload and spoke from personal experience of serious injury. "I tore my cruciate ligament. I know it's a traumatic injury. 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 dont have many players from the youth academy, and the ones we do have want to go out on loan to play more regularly. "
Conte stressed that competing in every competition requires greater depth. "If we have to play 60 games per year, we need a bigger squad; otherwise, it's suicide. "
Full time#NapoliFiorentina 2-1 #ForzaNapoliSempre pic.twitter.com/ZqeJ8VIbuEOfficial SSC Napoli (@en_sscnapoli) January 31, 2026
Asked about Di Lorenzo's condition after the Fiorentina match, Conte did not hide concern. "The feeling 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;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. "
Napoli home form, Conte and Champions League setback
Napoli's win followed a 3-2 home defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League, which ended the Scudetto holders' European campaign. Despite that disappointment, Conte's side have now equalled their longest unbeaten home sequence in Serie A during the three-points-per-win era, with 22 league matches without defeat.
The current stretch matches the run recorded between August 2015 and September 2016 under Maurizio Sarri. While results at home remain strong, Conte's comments underline how squad limitations, a heavy calendar and repeated injuries are shaping Napoli's prospects across competitions this season.
