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.
I’m thinking of selling Yaya and Bony for Silva and Kane, but before I make the change is there anything else I should do with this team??
Matt, seem to be sensible moves on paper. Personally for the next 3 games i’ll likely do without any City and get Kun back for the Hull game.
Okay thanks Cook what do you think I should do with Yaya then??
Let him play AFCON.
Matt, personally I think Cesc and Hazard are untouchable right now, but you already have 3 Chelsea. Alexis?
I’d rather get rid of Costa and have both Haz and Fabs.
Have Costa and Haz at the moment. >.<
Might do Costa to Kun later and ummm Silva to Fabs.
Ye that’s what I was thinking but I forgot I had three chelsea players already. Arsenals fixtures aren’t the best.
Stoke, Villa, Leicester all at home in the next 5 GWs……not that bad.
Raz I might sell Costa and bring in Hazard for Yaya but then I would have to take a hit to bring someone in for Costa. Who would you suggest??
I fit see the Leicester fixture but I think Stoke could put it up to Arsenal seem to play well against the big teams. Beat Chelsea and drew to United I think Arsenal will get a draw too.
Matt, Chelsea beat Stoke and while Arsenal lost there, they still scored twice and Stoke at home are a lot different to Stoke away.
Ye I just realised it was Arsenal who lost 3-2. Thinking of selling Yaya, Bony and Costa for Hazard, Kane and Rooney? Till I play my Wildcard and bring Kun in
I like those moves Matt
Ye it seems like the best option for me and it leaves me with 5 mil to mess around with for my WC
Which one would you guys go for ?
Falcao/Rooney/RVP or Costa
Kane outscores all of them. :dance:
On WC and I’ve have Kane now
Not touching United at the moment. When Di Maria returns and is fit he’ll be my main man.
Im on my WC. Need to decide 3 out of Haz / Fab / Costa / Terry. Would like to keep Haz and Fab so deciding out of Costa and Terry (I think). Opinions? Cheers
In the same boat Fally…..and I am as equally undecided!! The underperforming or injured or absent strikers is making life very tough!
Cheers for the reply. It’s a tough one. I took Costa out 2 weeks ago for Giroud (c) then he got sent off. since then ive dropped from 88k to 300k overall!!! So thinking maybe Costa was my good luck charm haha
Terry. If you definitely want three Chelsea players I wouldn’t overload the attack with all three!
Cheers for the reply mate. Yeh that does make sense. Who do you reckon is a good alternative to Costa? Was thinking Rooney but he has been playing very deep
Should i jump on the bandwagon and replace Austin with Kane now, or should i hold off? Might be worth doing considering Kane’s price will most likely rise?
here’s my team, 1.6 in the bank.
Maybe Jovetic isn’t a good buy:
http://www.espnfc.com/manchester-city/story/2224526/manchester-citys-sergio-aguero-expected-to-return-for-arsenal-clash
Can also see Silva becoming a mastermind who brings 2 points each week again. If my WC was activated I would probably risk dropping Silva..
Silva has a great understanding with Kun. Think he will come good. With Jovetic in the way I actually think he should move to 10 or one of the flanks, he’ll get more points. Also, again very unlucky. A few genius passes by Silva not being finished. Just like Sterling yesterday. Sometimes the game is just about luck. Seems I ran out yesterday. 😉
Rate Jovetic a lot. Wrote this yesterday but Jovetic was tipped by many to get the Golden Boot this year if he stayed fit.
I’ve not activated my WC yet, may wait until later in the month but what do people think of these teams? Which do you prefer if all players were fit?
Can’t have a team that has no way of getting Aguero in, in my opinion, although I would prefer ADM over Costa once he is fit.
Thanks AT, what about something like this? I’ve had Costa all season but may be willing to let him go if the overall balance improves!
Looks good, personally would prefer Eriksen over Sterling but purely based on recent point scores.
Would consider Clichy’s game time before bringing him in. I know he performed well (Fantasy wise) yesterday but his rotation with Kolarov is very infuriating as an owner.