AFCON and Football in Africa

[rupzzz]

I posted the below in the PL thread, however that thread becomes an in-match thread for non-Liverpool fixtures so it gets lost dead fast. Thought it useful to be here. I suspect there will be some fixture changes etc in the coming weeks…it might not even go ahead!

@rupzzz

The AFCON final is due to take place on 6 Feb. We play Leicester on the 9 Feb, so if either Mane/Salah/Naby make the final, its likely they miss that, from a fitness perspective.

Our games during AFCON are due to be Brentford (H), and Crystal Palace (A).

Brentford will be losing Onyeka, who plays a fair bit for them.

Crystal Palace will be losing a few important players - Kouyate, Schlupp, Ayew, and Zaha

Both games I’d expect us to be able to win without Mane and Mo - would expect Bobby to be back firing and we have Div and Taki around who have both looked decent when called upon this season.

Leicester will be losing players to AFCON too - Amartey, Ndidi, and Iheanacho. Again, I’d back us against Leicester at home missing one of Mo or Salah (assuming both don’t make the final!).

Meanwhile City won’t be too heavily affected, losing only Mahrez. Don’t expect them to be too negatively affected, especially if they bring a striker in early in the window.

Chelsea will be losing Mendy, meaning the worlds most expensive goalkeeper will be back between the sticks (yay), as well as Ziyech. They face Man City (A)(!!!) and Spurs (H) during AFCON. Plus they have the World Club Cup to contend with.

Overall, given the fixtures we have, I’m not too concerned about AFCON at the moment. Think it could hit Chelsea harder given their fixtures. I’d expect Conte to have Spurs firing by Jan.

Also, our match against Chelsea is on 2 January, so we could be impacted there (as pointed out by @mattyhurst. If players are on a pre-tournament camp or have to do quarantining etc then that may be the case. AFCON kicks off on the 9 Jan. with Senegal and Guinea playing on the 10 Jan, and Egypt on the 11 Jan.