The impact of AFCON

It makes me laugh Onana didn’t make the squad.

What’s funnier we were all hoping Onana’s involvement would speed up Mbeumo’s return haha.
 
Maz - not much impact

Mbeumo huge impact
Amad decent impact

Really need Cunha back up to speed as a minimum. Ideally Sesko as well.

We shou;d simply move Bruno forward bearing in mind he's better there anyway.
 
Bit of joke if the other teams get to field their African players that weekend, but we don't because the PL decided we have to play on Monday after the cut-off.
 
At this point, if more than half of clubs are affected, would it not just make sense to have a two-week break in the season for AFCON?
 
Is the 15th a definite cut off point or is 7 days from the teams opening game as I've seen suggestions elsewhere that it's the latter in which case Mbeumo and Amad would be fine for Bournemouth
 
Fr. Todd Unctious said:
Is the 15th a definite cut off point or is 7 days from the teams opening game as I've seen suggestions elsewhere that it's the latter in which case Mbeumo and Amad would be fine for Bournemouth
Click to expand...
Hopefully, both of them can still play the Bournemouth game before the go to AFCON. Only 1 day delay and it should be negotiable with their FA.
 
Wonder what scandal we'll have in this AFCON.

Referee blowing 10 minutes before full-time again? Who the feck knows. Always some bullshit with this competition.
 
I think the only player we will genuinely miss is Mbeumo. His goals and energy have been key for us. Amad is a quality player and I really like him but in the last few months he has been a shadow of the influence he gave us last season. As for Maz, he dont really play. Also, Rwb area we are stacked I expected Shaw to go left when martinez is fully back and dalot to reclaim the right. The void Mbeumo leaves is just too big, no player is good enough to cover his contributions but id like to be proven wrong because we do have back up in that area. I expect our line up to be:

Lemmens
Yoro de ligt martinez
Dalot casemiro Bruno Shaw
Mount cunah
Sesko
 
Amad will be a huge loss, he’s the most important player in this formation as without him there is nothing out wide. We struggle against everyone now, take him out and it’s going to be grim.
 
Genuinely intrigued what Amorim is going to do in this period.

Based on tonight that is your whole right hand side of the pitch!

Dalot can obviously shift back over to that side but not sure how many yellows he has but if he has a knock I have no idea what you'll do.

Some suggested Mount as a wing back but he's not really starting many games as it is so couldn't see his fitness holding up in the most physically demanding position in the default formation.

We'll probably find a way to mess things up but you've then got Newcastle who won comfortably at OT last season and have pace to burn on the left with Hall and Gordon. Also will probably be missing a couple of Leeds away and we see what they did against undercooked Chelsea.

That was a bad two points dropped tonight with what is shortly to come.
 
We needed to be "ahead of the curve" prior to AFCON because we know performances are going to tank once Mbeumo and Amad are gone. We know that what little attacking threat we have will be blunted significantly. I worry (or, rather, am resigned to the fact) that we are going to be so far off the pace once AFCON is over.
 
It would be hilarious if we had all the centre back options at AFCON bar two.
 
Given that we lose our two best attackers and whole right side, if there is a time for him to try a 4231/433 then this is probably it.
 
Surely during the Afcon, we need to bring in Mainoo & push Fernandes further forward!
 
Leftback99 said:
Given that we lose our two best attackers and whole right side, if there is a time for him to try a 4231/433 then this is probably it.
Click to expand...
Well that would be what literally any other manager would sensibly do. Shame we have the most pig headed, inflexible, idiotic and arrogant manager out there.
 
This will be used has the next excuse for Amorim of bad results and performances.
 
Prepare for a lot of Dalot/Mazraoui at RWB, Dorgu on the left and Mount as a 10 on the right. Although saying that, a run of games for Mount will most certainly mean injury.
 
AndyMUFC said:
To be fair the fixtures could be worse. I'm sure it will have an impact on us going forward but we're playing all of the bottom three in the 5 games they will likely miss.

They'll be back for that City game if they don't make the final.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately their is a pointless 3/4th place playoff on the 17th.
 
If you go off betting odds the following will happen.

Ivory Coast will get to the QFs and be knocked out by Morocco.

Cameroon will get to the QFs and be knocked out by Egypt.

So Mbeumo and Amad will be missing for 5 PL games but be back for City.

Mazzroui will thus be playing in the final or 3rd/4th play off game and miss the city match.

Of course AFCON has a history of shock results so anything can happen and our players might be back earlier than expected.
 
So do we know when we will release Amad, Mbeumo and Mazroui for AFCON? Hopefully after the Bournemouth game?
 
I feel like the biggest problem won't be our best starting XI, but the hit to our depth and rotation options.

Dalot and Dorgu will be our only real WB options in my view. Mazraoui and Shaw don't really play there. And with Bruno likely to still play CM, we are down to Cunha, Mount, Zirkzee and Sesko for the three forward spots.

For a busy Christmas schedule it really is not ideal. If we get 1-2 injuries at the wrong positions, it won't look good.
 
It genuinely is utterly insane that AFCON happens in this window and I don't meant it in a disrespectful way. The fact that the PL go one step forward and plan so many games during that time is even crazier. It's a billion pound league and so to have teams lose players for 5-6 league games which is basically like 15% of the season is madness. There's also the physical & emotional toll the tournament itself takes on the players which could affect them even longer. I don't know what the solution but this ain't it for sure.


For us it doesn't help that Amorim has a lack of options and he hasn't done a lot to get some more players involved so that they could be useful come AFCON
 
Last edited:
Ayush_reddevil said:
It genuinely is utterly insane that AFCON happens in this window and I don't meant it in a disrespectful way. The fact that the PL go one step forward and plan so many games during that time is even crazier. It's a billion pound league and so to have teams lose players for 5-6 league games which is basically like 15% of the season is madness. There's also the physical & emotional toll the tournament itself takes on the players which could affect them even longer. I don't want the solution but this ain't it for sure.


For us it doesn't help that Amorim has a lack of options and he hasn't done a lot to get some more players involved so that they could be useful come AFCON
Click to expand...
Possible solution: Scrap the League Cup, spread out 2-3 league games from the busy winter period throughout the fall and early December as mid-week games.
 
thegregster said:
If you go off betting odds the following will happen.

Ivory Coast will get to the QFs and be knocked out by Morocco.

Cameroon will get to the QFs and be knocked out by Egypt.

So Mbeumo and Amad will be missing for 5 PL games but be back for City.

Mazzroui will thus be playing in the final or 3rd/4th play off game and miss the city match.

Of course AFCON has a history of shock results so anything can happen and our players might be back earlier than expected.
Click to expand...

5 PL games, that's crazy in the scheme of things. We're cooked if others don't step up.
 
So sounds like Sesko will be back this Monday, and properly fit for the Villa game?

I'm guessing our front 3 is going to be Mount, Sesko, Cunha then with Dalot/Shaw/Dorgu as wing backs? Kinda crazy that even with AFCON Kobbie might be left out.
 
Sandikan said:
Maz - not much impact

Mbeumo huge impact
Amad decent impact

Really need Cunha back up to speed as a minimum. Ideally Sesko as well.

We shou;d simply move Bruno forward bearing in mind he's better there anyway.
Click to expand...
Move Bruno forward? In your dream. Unless we have a new manager
 
What's the story with Mbeumo and Amad for Monday night. Are they definitely unavailable ? A real pain in the ass if they are especially as most of the other PL teams still get to have their African players in this round of fixtures.
 
Fr. Todd Unctious said:
What's the story with Mbeumo and Amad for Monday night. Are they definitely unavailable ? A real pain in the ass if they are especially as most of the other PL teams still get to have their African players in this round of fixtures.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure they're available, AFCON players are available until the 16th I think I read.
 
Any reason why this tournament can’t be played in the summer like the World Cup one is? It’s obviously going to impact teams who have quality African players playing for them when they lose them mid season.
 
DJ_21 said:
Any reason why this tournament can’t be played in the summer like the World Cup one is? It’s obviously going to impact teams who have quality African players playing for them when they lose them mid season.
Click to expand...

I think they were supposed to be moving towards playing it in the summer and this one was actually supposed to be played in the summer there, but FIFA made them move it to accommodate the Club World Cup.

The 2027 AFCON is currently scheduled for July but 2029 is back to December/January as the CWC will be back that year.

So if it goes the way it's going, it will likely be every 4 years that there will be an issue.
 
DJ_21 said:
Any reason why this tournament can’t be played in the summer like the World Cup one is? It’s obviously going to impact teams who have quality African players playing for them when they lose them mid season.
Click to expand...
Or just play it every 4 years instead of 2.
 
Lammens
Yoro - de Ligt/Heaven - Shaw/Martinez
Dorgu - Bruno - Casemiro - Dalot
Mount - Cunha
Sesko
​
I'd move Dorgu to RWB to have a left footed player on that side and just tell him to attack.

​
 
Last edited:
KiD MoYeS said:
Pretty sure they're available, AFCON players are available until the 16th I think I read.
Click to expand...

Thought we were in negotation which suggested that they might miss our match?

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/sto...con-nations-mbeumo-mazraoui-amad-travel-delay

I'd read that the release date was the 15th, which I took to mean that they were supposed to report for duty on that date so therefore unavailable unless there was some sort of agreement reached. First line from here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5yqpv3z810o

Think we negotiated for Onana last time from memory.

Looking at the AFCON fixtures, Morroco play on the first day of the tournament on the 21st so Maz might be more the difficult than Amad and Mbeumo who don't play until the 24th. The same for Bournemouth/Morroco with Adli.

Annoying if we lost any players and the other PL teams don't for this round of fixtures, even moreso if we couldn't used Amad with Mbeumo with them starting a little later. The gap between them playing on the 15th for us then the 24th for their countries is fairly long, and a longer gap than some players will be getting depending on their club/nation. Someone like Bissouma for Spurs due to play on the 14th for them then the 22nd for Mali as an example but we potentially can't do the 15th/24th. Stupid PL's fault if it happens for shunting us to the Monday.
 
We have to bring in an attacking player during the AFCON and january window if we have any thoughts about staying in the top 6....without Diallo and Mbuemo, we lose two of our most creative attacking players and don't really have proper back ups for them
 
We're absolutely cooked during AFCON. Without Amad, we have nothing on the flanks. We also lose the entire right side of the team. The right side is where our best players are. It sucks, but I hope they get knocked out early, because we need them back asap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.