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<p><i><b>How will the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) impact FPL?</b></i></p>
<p><i> </i><i><a href="https://twitter.com/FPL_JianBatra">Jian Batra</a> looks at how the individual assets leaving will change the shape of the game but also the inevitable knock on effects they will have on other assets.</i></p>
<p>Don’t forget to check out our <strong><a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-ultimate-guide/">Ultimate FPL Gameweek 13 Guide</a></strong> which has everything you need to help you make the best decisions ahead of the deadline.</p>
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<p><a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-ultimate-guide/">https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-ultimate-guide/</a></p>
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<h2>When does AFCON take place?</h2>
<p>The tournament will last just under a month between 9 January  and 6 February 2022.</p>
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<h2>When do players leave for AFCON?</h2>
<p>Whilst it&#8217;s not a complete certainty, players have been widely reported to be leaving their clubs for the tournament following the conclusion of their boxing day fixture.</p>
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<h2>How many FPL gameweeks will players miss?</h2>
<p>The players will miss <strong>Gameweek 20-24,</strong> providing their side progresses through the whole tournament. <strong>That would be a total of five games</strong>. Most players, however, will just miss up to<strong> Gameweek 23</strong>. That&#8217;s still four games.</p>
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<h2>Which players are leaving for AFCON?</h2>
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<h3>Arsenal</h3>
<ul>
<li>Thomas Partey (Ghana)</li>
<li>Mohamed Elneny (Egypt)</li>
<li>Pierre Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)</li>
<li>Nicolas Pepe (Ivory Coast)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Aston Villa</h3>
<ul>
<li>Mahmoud Trezeguet (Egypt)</li>
<li>Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso)</li>
<li>Marvelous Nakamba (Zimbabwe)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Brentford</h3>
<ul>
<li>Julian Jeanvier (Guinea)</li>
<li>Frank Onyeka (Nigeria)</li>
<li>Tariqe Fosu-Henry (Ghana)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Brighton</h3>
<ul>
<li>Yves Bissouma (Mali)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Burnley</h3>
<ul>
<li>Maxwel Cornet (Ivory Coast)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Chelsea</h3>
<ul>
<li>Edouard Mendy (Senegal)</li>
<li>Hakim Ziyech (Morocco)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Crystal Palace</h3>
<ul>
<li>Cheikhou Kouyate (Senegal)</li>
<li>Jeffrey Schlupp (Ghana)</li>
<li>Jordan Ayew (Ghana)</li>
<li>Wilfried Zaha (Ivory Coast)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Everton</h3>
<ul>
<li>Jean-Philippe Gbamin (Ivory Coast)</li>
<li>Alex Iwobi (Nigeria)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Leicester</h3>
<ul>
<li>Daniel Amartey (Ghana)</li>
<li>Nampalys Mendy (Senegal)</li>
<li>Wilfred Ndidi (Nigeria)</li>
<li>Kelechi Iheanacho (Nigeria)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Liverpool</h3>
<ul>
<li>Mohammed Salah (Egypt)</li>
<li>Naby Keita (Guinea)</li>
<li>Sadio Mane (Senegal)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Manchester City</h3>
<ul>
<li>Riyad Mahrez (Algeria)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Manchester United</h3>
<ul>
<li>Eric Bailly (Ivory Coast)</li>
<li>Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Southampton</h3>
<ul>
<li>Moussa Djenepo (Mali)</li>
<li>Mohammed Salisu (Ghana)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Watford</h3>
<ul>
<li>Peter Etebo (Nigeria)</li>
<li>William Troost-Ekong (Nigeria)</li>
<li>Adam Masina (Morocco)</li>
<li>Ismaila Sarr (Senegal)</li>
<li>Emmanuel Dennis (Nigeria)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>West Ham</h3>
<ul>
<li>Said Benrahma (Algeria)</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Wolves</h3>
<ul>
<li>Romain Saiss (Morocco)</li>
<li>Willy Boly (Ivory Coast)</li>
</ul>
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<h2>The Implications of AFCON on FPL</h2>
<p>As you can see above, <strong>there are about 40 players leaving for the tournament</strong>, and this will cause a massive shake up in the Premier League season. Below are pieces of analysis on certain teams and what AFCON could mean for your FPL team.</p>
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<h2>Liverpool</h2>
<p>Losing <strong>Mohamed Salah (£13.0m)</strong> and <strong>Sadio Mane (£11.9m)</strong> is a huge blow in so many different ways. I doubt Liverpool will even come close to replacing what these two can do for the side.</p>
<p>Firstly let&#8217;s start with the obvious: goals. The pair have notched <strong>16 goals and 9 assists</strong> between them in the first 11 gameweeks. To put that into context, Liverpool have scored 31 goals to date, which means their goal involvement is a ridiculous<strong> 80.64%</strong>.</p>
<div id="attachment_40696" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-40696" class="size-full wp-image-40696" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36.jpg" alt="AFCON and FPL analysis" width="1590" height="1290" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36.jpg 1590w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36-300x243.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36-1024x831.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36-768x623.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36-1536x1246.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36-610x495.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.50.36-1080x876.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1590px) 100vw, 1590px" /><p id="caption-attachment-40696" class="wp-caption-text">Salah and Mane&#8217;s underlying <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="1" title="FPL Stats by OPTA - Player and Team Stats">stats</a> between Gameweek 1-11.</p></div>
<p>From an attacking standpoint, it&#8217;s pretty obvious they are exceptional. <strong>Fluidity of movement</strong>, capability to attack the wider areas but also penetrate in the half spaces.</p>
<p>Both are more than capable of <strong>good build up play</strong>, lightning pace to stretch the opposition, excellent sense of positional awareness inside the area and ruthless finishing (the last two are particularly applicable to Salah). Regardless of who they bring in, they can&#8217;t replicate the above.</p>
<p>Naturally, this means Liverpool will have less possession of the ball for numerous factors. Firstly. teams can press Liverpool faster via a higher initial defensive line, as now they don&#8217;t need to accommodate for the duo&#8217;s pace in behind.</p>
<p>Secondly, in possession they won&#8217;t be able to continue with the same patterns of play. This adjustment is unlikely to be instant, and I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see Liverpool try to force something when it&#8217;s not there (frustration will build if this occurs). The less possession they have, the more chances they are likely to concede.</p>
<p>However, the biggest problem I foresee &#8211; one which will specifically impact the defensive assets &#8211; is what Liverpool will miss <strong>off the ball</strong>. Defending, especially in a Klopp system, starts from the front.</p>
<p>Salah and Mane both provide an <strong>exceptional press </strong>and cut off passing lanes well, which forces teams to go long or play riskier passes. Either way, Liverpool&#8217;s ball retention is excellent with them on the pitch.</p>
<p>If the opposition can play through that frontline, it could have far reaching implications on the outcome of the game.</p>
<p><strong>Keita&#8217;s omission</strong> isn&#8217;t ideal either. I&#8217;m a huge fan of his: he possesses so much ability. He can be instrumental on the right side of midfield and just losing him as an option for his box to box and attacking characteristics (good passing range and ball progression) is a big blow.</p>
<p>The fixtures they could miss are; <strong>Leicester (twice), Chelsea, Brentford and Crystal Palace</strong>. A very difficult run &#8211; should Liverpool fail to adapt to life without the duo, it could have major negative implications on their title prospects.</p>
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<h2>Other FPL implications of AFCON</h2>
<p><strong>The ownership of these specific players and collective ownership from their teams is fairly low in a relative sense. Therefore, the FPL the impact won&#8217;t be anywhere close to the magnitude of the Liverpool assets.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Arsenal</strong> &#8211; The loss of <strong>Partey</strong> and <strong>Aubameyang (£10.0m</strong>) is a big blow. Partey more so as he has been instrumental in facilitating the fluidity of Arsenal&#8217;s midfield via the security he provides them. As such, the likes of <strong>Smith Rowe</strong> and <strong>Saka</strong> may suffer as a result (<strong>Lacazette</strong> with more responsibility on his shoulders may flourish). I expect the Arsenal defensive assets to decline as well.</p>
<p><strong>Crystal Palace</strong> &#8211; Very similar reasons to above, <strong>Kouyate</strong> is their Partey, and <strong>Zaha (£7.0m)</strong> is the talisman. Palace rely even more heavily on him.</p>
<p><strong>Leicester</strong> &#8211; Again, very similar to the two teams above given who&#8217;s leaving, just less impactful from the perspective of a talisman.</p>
<p><strong>Watford</strong> &#8211; Losing <strong>Sarr (£6.0m) &#8211; </strong>their talisman &#8211; and a plethora of players is going to make it even harder for them to stay up.</p>
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<h2>FPL and AFCON | Conclusion</h2>
<p>I expect a shift to a more attacking premium heavy template with the omission of Liverpool assets from manager&#8217;s squads. Events like these provide the greatest opportunity as there will ever be to experiment with more variety.</p>
<p>This would be the time to take calculated risks.</p>
<p>I will update this article/write a new one regarding the implications on FPL as they become more apparent and not as assumed.</p>
<p>Feel free to direct message me on Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/FPL_JianBatra">@FPL_JianBatra</a>, for any questions you may have (or drop them down below).</p>
<p>Thank you for your support!</p>
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<h2><b>Check out our Fantasy Premier League 2021/22 Ultimate Guide</b></h2>
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