I see Adel has pledged to play for Morrocco, any idea who else if going ? I know we have Mbia, diakite, Traore , but who actually is going ?
Diakite is the only one potentially off, for Mali. If either he or Adel refuse to go that's potentially the end of their international careers and perhaps difficult for their families as well (though Mali is a more than 'difficult' place anyway). They are young men and I would not blame them for going, but a couple of mysterious short term injuries would be handy. The timing and frequency of this tournament is insane, but Africa has a perfect right to have its own show, no argument about that.
First game 19 January, final 10 February. Lets say 2 weeks at least for squads to get together, so last game could be Chelsea, miss WBA in the cup, Spurs, West Ham, City, Norwich, Swansea. So 5 league games at worst. Real nightmare is injury.
The tournament runs from January 19th - February 10th. So whichever players go can potentially miss the following games... Sat Jan 19 West Ham a ( jan 26 fa cup 4th rd? ) Tue Jan 29 Man City h Sat Feb 2 Norwich h Sat Feb 9 Swansea a
My take is Adel should stay and play for QPR. If he is off in Jan and Arry gets in another player (and the player does well) then i see long time on the bench for Adel. Agree we all want to play for our country but i thought the manager didn't like him and chances are, he will be a sub? He should have stayed and kept his place in the team. All i will say is Adel don't moan if you come back and cant get in the team.
Agree with this, particularly as it's the second ACON tournament in successive years. Imagine having the Euros every year...
I read somewhere Morocco have a new Manager. Way Adel is playing now he'll be first name on their Squad sheet, unless the Manager is called Queens or Swords
That post should be put on the joke thread. On top of being our best and most effective player by a million miles the current formation with Adel in the hole and Mbia and Faulrin in their best positions works very welll. No body else in the team has the flair needed to play the role Adel plays effectively. Hoilett is likely to come in but his best position is wide left. We will probably therefore ended up forced to switch in to a 4-4-2 without Adel. We then have a problem that neither Mbia, Faurlin, are effective at supporting the front 2 or arriving late in the box to score. Granero will be important in this time but his strength is more to do with keeping possesion and not the probing pass around the box. He is however good at the odd long ball over the top. Arry's signings in Jan will be limited. He will of course sign a centre forward and a centre back. As soon as Adel back it will be back to Saturdays shape to bring the best out of our key players. We need to scrap through the time without Adel. SWP 'the passenger' has to be straight out of the team as he doesn't produce assists or goals and someone needs to provide the chances in Adels absence. Set pieces will be key so again we are relying on Granero's good delivery. Hopefully we keep it tight and nick a couple of wins and see out the odd low scoring draw.
As one or two others have mentioned, it will be a travesty if Adel was to go and spend every game starting on the bench when we need to play our strongest 11 for every league game from now to the end of the season
He might be a good player but if we do well without him or Arry brings in another player who has done well then i stand by my comments, that he may find it hard if all is going well?
Let's hope your right but I find it hard that if you take out the back four and the goal keeper we are going to be in a position so priveliged that out of the front 6 players you can't find a space for Adel. Only possibility of him missing a game after his return is if it is too close to his return from Africa. Let's hope South Africa, Angola and even Cape Verde finish above them and the time out there is as brief as possible
I don't think you should stop anyone playing for their country, imagine the out cry if Man U stopped Spud head from playing for England (most players have it written into their contract). I imagine representing your country must be a great experience\feeling.
