Antonio Conte does not believe Napoli are being given enough credit for continuing to perform amid a growing injury list.
The defending Serie A champions moved clear at the top of the table with their latest win on Tuesday, beating Lecce 1-0.
Frank Anguissa scored the only goal with Conte missing a number of high-profile stars, most notably long-term absentee Romelu Lukaku and star signing Kevin De Bruyne.
De Bruyne suffered a thigh injury in taking and scoring a penalty against Inter in Napoli's previous match and is not now set to return until the new year.
Yet the analysis around these setbacks has been scrutinised by Conte.
He said after the Lecce match: "Let's not forget this start to the season, where we're just having to make do. Key players are getting injured.
"There's been talk of major reinforcements, and meanwhile we've lost Lukaku and now De Bruyne too.
"Some have even said we benefited from that, and I find that absurd."
Napoli have injuries in goal, too, with title-winning goalkeeper Alex Meret also on the sidelines.
Fortunately, however, Conte signed a star of Napoli's season so far in Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, with that move justified by his unexpectedly prominent role.
5 - Vanja Milinkovic-Savic has saved five of his last nine penalties faced in #SerieA; furthermore, since the start of last season, only Nikola Vasilj (6) has saved more penalties than the Serbian goalkeeper (5) in the Big-5 European Leagues. Intuition.#LecceNapoli pic.twitter.com/JrmluikCrU
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) October 28, 2025
Against Lecce, Milinkovic-Savic saved a penalty at 0-0, his fifth penalty save in Serie A since the start of last season, the most in the league in that time.
"Let's look at the goalkeepers," Conte said. "The third keeper is injured, then Meret, and some were wondering why we also brought in Milinkovic-Savic. Now he's the only one left.
"Maybe we need to keep quiet sometimes, because some have a slightly longer view, and in the end, the facts prove them right."