'Absurd' injuries expose flaws in Napoli's transfer policy, claims Conte

Napoli's "absurd" injury crisis has exposed the flaws in the club's transfer business, so says Antonio Conte.

The reigning Serie A champions beat Genoa 3-2 on Saturday thanks to Rasmus Hojlund's last-gasp penalty.

Conte was again without a glut of key players, with Kevin De Bruyne among the star names still absent through injury. Romelu Lukaku, meanwhile, was an unused substitute.

And Napoli's injury concerns deepened as Scott McTominay, who netted a stunner in the first half, was forced off, while Juan Jesus saw red in the second half.

Conte has previously hit out at Napoli's squad-building, and he once again expressed his frustration.

"It is an absurd season, certainly," Conte told DAZN, as reported by Football Italia.

"If we are intelligent people, we all ought to reflect on the construction of the squad, on the transfer strategy that we did, because compared to other teams, we have a very reduced squad. We can’t even look to the youth academy.

"We have players like [Frank] Anguissa, who cannot seem to make a full recovery, [Billy] Gilmour had surgery and still has problems, so did De Bruyne, Lukaku was out for a long time. [Giovanni] Di Lorenzo will be out for two months, we don't know what's going to happen with McTominay.

"All we can do is pick up the remaining pieces, prepare for Como in the Coppa Italia, who even rested this weekend as their game against [AC] Milan was postponed. I don't know if McTominay can recover for that [game], but he'd be a big loss if he didn't.

"I always tell the lads, whether we win or lose, we must end the game with heads held high, having given our all, made the fans proud, and honoured the badge on the shirt.

"After that, let’s be clear, it is so difficult. Players make the history of a match, a coach can only do so much when he doesn’t have many players."

Napoli sit third, six points back from Serie A leaders Inter, with the Opta supercomputer handing Conte's team only a 4.1% chance of retaining the title.

Genoa, on the other hand, are 14th and five points above the bottom three, though Opta's model ranks their chances of relegation at just 10.5%.

Their coach Daniele De Rossi, however, was left seething after the decision to award Napoli the decisive penalty, with Antonio Vergara adjudged to have been fouled by Maxwel Cornet.

"I don't know what to say anymore," De Rossi told DAZN.

"I already talked last week about penalties. None of us know what a clear and obvious error is anymore. We no longer know if we have to step on a foot or just glance over it.

"The football that I played in no longer exists. I must tell my players to keep their arms behind their backs and not go into tackles. I don't know what sport I am coaching."