Familiar selection issue for City as AFCON looms
WHEN January rolls around, City and their Premier League title rivals will face a familiar selection problem.
Between January 9 and February 9, the best national teams on the continent will meet for the African Cup of Nations. A handful of Premier League stars could miss up to five weeks of the season, including City’s Riyad Mahrez, but it looks like Liverpool will be the team most affected by absentees.
Mohamed Salah is arguably the best player in the world right now, while his attacking colleague Sadio Mane has also been brilliant this season. The pair will travel to Cameroon to represent Egypt and Senegal respectively and could miss up to five league fixtures.
While City have enough options to cope with Mahrez’ absence, they know the damage losing a player to the AFCON can do.
During his eight-year spell at City, Yaya Toure represented the Ivory Coast at three AFCONs. City were left without their midfield talisman at the beginning of 2012, 2013 and 2015, and each time their fortunes suffered as a result.
In 2012, things turned out alright in the end. Ivory Coast went all the way to the final (which they lost on penalties to Zambia), meaning that Yaya missed five Premier League fixtures. Roberto Mancini’s side won four of those, although a 1-0 defeat at Everton, at a point when the title race with Manchester United was neck-and-neck, did not do City fans’ nerves any good.
Frustratingly for City the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided to switch the scheduling of the AFCON to ‘odd’ years, meaning that 12 months later City lost Toure again. At first they coped alright, but consecutive draws against Queen’s Park Rangers and
Liverpool allowed United to pull away at the top of the table.
The 2014-15 campaign, the last in which Toure departed for the AFCON, was an utter shambles for City. After seven consecutive wins at the end of 2014 pulled them level with league leaders Chelsea, Manuel Pellegrini’s side failed to win any of their first four games without Toure, as the Ivorian again missed five matches. By the time he returned, the title was on its way to Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge.
In theory, Liverpool could face a similar situation with Salah and Mane. Salah is in the form of his life, with so much of Liverpool’s attacking play running through him. Both he and Mane are arguably more important to Jurgen Klopp’s system that Toure was to City, although they might strike lucky in terms of the games the pair will miss.
FIFA protocols denote that players should be released for the AFCON by December 27, 2021, meaning that Salah and Mane would miss Liverpool’s trips to Leicester and Chelsea.
However, clubs can seek the permission of individual federations to delay the release of players for the tournament.
Should Liverpool reach agreements with football governing bodies in Egypt and Senegal, then the duo would likely only miss games against Brentford and Crystal Palace.