International Tournaments in January & February 2015
Some of you will have read the header and thought Tournaments! There’s only the African Cup of Nations to contend with…. wrong answer boys and girls! There is also the AFC Asian Cup in Australia to deal with. It could mean that some Premier League players will be unavailable for 3-4 gameweeks. With FIFA regulations stating that “For a final competition players must be released and start to travel to their national team no later than the Monday morning of the week preceding that of the start of the relevant final competition, and must be released by their association the morning of the day after their last match of the tournament” this could have a huge impact on Fantasy Manager’s January Wildcards.
Now I bet some of you still think that these tournaments will not have an effect on your Fantasy sides, well to name but a few players, if you have the like of; Bony, Yaya Toure, Cisse, Sakho, Jedinak and Yoshida then you will be affected.
Let’s start off with the African Cup of Nations or ACON:
The African Cup of Nations is the international football championships for the African Football Confederation, (CAF) and will be taking place in Equatorial Guinea. ACON will take place between 17 January to 8 February 2015. Players can start reporting to their National Associations from the 5th January.
At present the 30 man squads are only available; this will be reduced down to 23 at a date to be confirmed. At present there are 20 Premier League players going to ACON. Here is the initial list of players by club, who could be going to the Tournament:
Crystal Palace- Adlene Guediora (Algeria), Yannick Bolasie (DR Congo)
Everton- Christian Atsu (Ghana)
Hull- Mohamed Diame (Senegal)
Leicester- Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), Jeff Schlupp (Ghana)
Liverpool- Kolo Toure (Ivory Coast)
Man City- Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast)
Newcastle- Mehdi Abeid (Algeria), Papiss Cisse (Senegal), Cheick Tiote (Ivory Coast)
Southampton- Emmanuel Mayuka (Zambia), Sadio Mane (Senegal)
Stoke- Mame Biram Diouf (Senegal)
Swansea- Wilfried Bony (Ivory Coast)
Tottenham- Nabil Bentaleb (Algeria)
West Ham- Alex Song (Cameroon), Cheikhou Kouyate (Senegal), Diafra Sakho (Senegal)
West Bromwich- Youssouf Mulumbu (DR Congo)
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Next up is the lesser known Tournament known as the AFC Asian Cup:
The AFC Asian Cup is the international football championships for the Asian Football Confederation. (AFC) The winner will qualify for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. The Cup is taking place in Australia and will take place between the 9 January to the 31 January 2015. Players can start reporting to their National Associations from the 29th December.
Like ACON at present only the 30 man squads are only available. There are 7 Premier League players selected in preliminary squads for the Asian Cup. This Cup competition will impact Fantasy Premier League teams during Gameweeks 21-23. The initial list is:
Aston Villa- Chris Herd (Australia)
Crystal Palace- Mile Jedinak (Australia)
Liverpool- Brad Jones (Australia)
QPR- Yun Suk Young (QPR)
Southampton- Maya Yoshida (Japan)
Swansea- Ki Sung Yueng (Korean Republic)
West Brom- Jason Davidson (Australia)
It remains to be seen when players involved in this Tournament will be called up by their Associations. I would suggest to all you Fantasy Managers to keep a close eye on the squads and don’t get caught with you pants down! West Ham look like they could be effected the most by these tournaments losing Alex Song, Cheikhou Kouyate and Diafra Sakho. Some of the players involved are popular with many a Fantasy Manager, Wilfried Bony, Mile Jedinak and Yaya Toure being the main protagonists.
Plan your transfers carefully and remember the January Wildcard can only be used after Gameweek 20 starts until Gameweek 23 ends.
Not a straight swap though is it. I prefer Fabregas and Hazard to Costa so guess it depends if you want 3 chelsea
Fabregas or Eriksen ….?
Fab
Fab. No real debate
If I have already taken and confirmed a hit this game week and I choose to play my wc a few days later does the hit get cancelled?
Yes, anything you do between now and the deadline is overridden if you play your WC prior to the deadline.
Cheers init thought that was the case. Have you played yours yet?
So tempted- fingers are getting twitchy!
No mate, think I’m ok for this week so I’ll probably hang fire for now.
Hi all. Best combo for two game weeks only:
Chadli/Eriksen and Costa
Chadli/Eriksen and a United forward (which)
Fab and Ings/Barnes/any striker under 9,9m
Other
Already have Kane and Austin so feel like Ings would make it too cheap up top but great fixtures.
Maybe Chadli and Costa..
Hi AT, initial reaction was also option 1 with either mid. I’m just writing fixtures now actually and all of Chelsea, Spurs, Utd and Burnley have decent ones ahead. The caveat with Burnley is that come GW25 they they have Utd and Chelsea away.
Will WC for GW23 so no problem with fixtures post then. Cheers Init. I’ll try holding off until after the FA cup fixtures anyway without losing too much team value.
Baines going down tonight though
Oh hang on, no he won’t.
Gone from -97 to -50 on a matter of minutes..real helpful FFF 😉
Noticed the same AT. ;)They can’t make up their minds. I know I have. I’m keeping Baines. Baines penalty versus CITY! :dance:
On that note, Martinez sacked yet? I bet Frank de Boer can do with Everton what Pochetino did with Spurs and Koeman did with Soton.
Current team, no need to WC yet with that you reckon?
I’d say not Shadow, changing for the sake of changing there as you look fine for this week so far.
Good stuff. Pellegrini said Aguero is about 2 weeks away so might try hold off till about then.
Right in time for my wildcard. 😉
Think I’m gonna start mine after the 17th. Fourteen days not matches. Seems the best timing.
Hey Raz, what do you think of these tweaks for my WC team? Since Austin’s next home matches are against United, Southampton, Spurs, Arsenal, Everton, Chelsea, and West Ham – I’m thinking that Kane may be a better 3rd striker and it would be good to get another heavy hitter up top. So from my original WC team I’ve changed Fabregas and Austin to Chadli and Costa. And Boyd comes in for Downing who has a tougher schedule coming up and some good WH players away to the ACON. I also poached your idea about the Sunderland keepers because hey- you’re smart.
Pants Mannone
Terry Hutton Wisdom Bertrand Wasilewski
Silva Hazard Chadli Sanchez Boyd
Costa Kane Rooney/Falcao
Money left over to bring Aguero in for Rooney/Falcao and also upgrade Silva to ADM when he’s back if I want. Any better than this morning’s team? And would you prefer anyone else over Chadli in that price range? Siggy maybe?
Aaaaaargh, you also went with the Panti/Man tactic? Shit, I have to stop and say things out loud. You guys can implement my tactical plans before I can.
Great team, might work. Austin is a weird boy though. Even if he is quiet versus the smaller teams, for some reason I see him doing well over the season. He seems sort of fixture proof plus takes penalty’s. But if I was on wildcard I might do the same as you, I can’t afford the move since I’m not.
Siggy has harder fixtures right? Hmmm, it’s all a bit of a headache at the moment. I know the first few days of my wildcard I didn’t do anything. I just picked up the pricerisers. Which is just Silva tonight, it seems. Tomorrow Kane and Austin. You did pick up the extra SV cash from Austin didn’t you? Meaning if you bought him at 6.3m and tomorrow he’ll be 6.5m, you’d have made 0.1 on him. You know what I mean.
Anyway, I have to be off for bed. Been a weird couple of days. FEELING UTTER SHITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy I have a hospital visit in a week and a half so I can finally get some freaking answers. Good night mate. And take care. Oyasumi Nasai.
Thanks for your thoughts on the WC business Raz, I appreciate it mate. I hope you’re feeling better soon and that the hospital visit helps. See you on the boards tomorrow, goodnight!
ps. just joking around when I say I thought up a certain plan, like the Pants/Man move. Everything we do or think about has probably already been done. 😉
Anyway, really off now. Oyasumi Nasai. Welterusten.