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)
[divider_1px]
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.
Who do you guys think will score more pts over the coming weeks until AGUERO is back ?
Falcao
Rooney
RVP
Seen a bunch of folks ask that question. Don’t think we’ll really know until it unfolds especially w/ Di Maria due back soon as well. RvP or Rooney if you’re a little more conservative I guess. Tough one, that!
It’s tough. Not sure who is going to miss out when Di Maria is back. Maybe Mata but he’s been ok recently. RVP at a push but not with the 2 million extra but is easiest switch to Aguero.
If you’ve already got one I probably wouldn’t make a sideways move for another unless on a WC (I’ve got RVP), if I was bringing one in it would be Falcao as he’s the cheapest at 10.5 but I’m with Sanchez on thinking it’s a tough call on who’ll score the most.
Is there any immediate changes I need to make to my team? Not sure about using my WC just yet, may wait and see what happens with ADM, Aguero and any new signings. Thinking I need to change Fabregas to Hazard but also considering Austin to Kane. Any suggestions?
No need to WC; team looks decent. Regarding Austin –> Kane, tough call. Kane does have the ‘better’ fixtures but who knows with these two explosive players. Go with your gut.
I had a very similar team and actually went for Austin and Kane by ditching Costa. I used the spare cash to then get both Hazard and Fabregas. That would answer both your questions. I figured either one of them are involved in almost everything Chelsea do
Need one midfielder and one striker to play for the next two weeks (to replace Yaya and Bony). Best options? I already have Silva, Sanchez and Hazard.
Was thinking Eriksen/Chadli and Costa.
Is there anything better?
AT — I went with Chadli and Kane (for Yaya and Sakho) but Eriksen and Costa work as well. United have some tasty fixtures coming up after next week though it’s hard to tell who’ll bag the points (RvP, Rooney, Falcao).
Sanchez, already have Kane (just bloody benched him, didnt I? haha
).
Think Chadli will outscore Eriksen, just a hunch. In easier games a man who scores from set pieces is probably less favourable.
AT, you’re not the only one who benched him. Sigh. Just catching up now, back home from my India trip having caught the first half of that match before the airport taxi arrived. Two goals and two assists, huh. And if I’d made him captain I’d now be in the top 500. As it is I’m slumming it 😉 level on points again with Raziel.
What is the best 2 goalkeepers for wildcard do people think?
I m going with Pantilimon And Krul when he returns.Guzan n Foster going well for me so far as well.
Seen few people gone with de gea and hamer
De Gea is too expensive when u consider utd.defence.De Gea to 4.7m keeper gives u 1m left.That can be used to upgrade Harmer to another playing keeper and u will hav.0.4m left to invest elsewhere as well
Pants is best at the moment. Guzan also good option but plenty of cheap villa defenders. Foster under Pulis historically good defensive coach is my pick
Hey guys, would you WC this team?
Heaton (Pants)
Terry Zab Hutton (Dummett & Duff)
Hazard Sanchez Sterlng Siggy Downing
Costa Kane (Austin)
5.5m & 0 FT.
I have no City cover aka Silva and no utd cover but not to fussed about that.
Don’t want to miss out on Silva’s price raise tonight so thinking about pulling the trigger, would bin Heaton, Zab, Dummett, Sterling, Siggy and Austin for
Keeper, Bertrand, Vertonghen (till kun fit then downgrading), Silva, Boyd and Jovetic.
Thanks.
Spurs defence is not worth that much money.I would suggest Zab to Kompany would be a good move.R u thinking of Keeping Sanchez??i will sell him to raise cash for Kun.Not really value for money last few weeks
Thanks dhruva.
I quite like the look of Spurs next three fixtures then Vert would be downgraded to get Kun in but I’m not sure about it either. I already have Zab and he has just been giving me a headache ever since I put him in, will he be rotated do you know? Sanchez is a hard one with such good form early in the season he’s bound to pick up points plus he has been playing well just not points wise……
5.5 in bank is a lot. But no might as well wait
Have hit the wildcard as felt a few changes were needed due to fixtures as the tournaments.
How does this look for a first draft ? Have half a million left in the bank.