African Cup of Nations - What are we going to do?

[Kennyblueboy]

get messi on loan

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Sheikh Mansour will buy Africa.
Job done.

Edited.

 

[Jumanji]

Bobby in his interview said he's not buying anyone

 

[MSP]

All Yaya moaners are going to see the difference with or without him at that period unfortunately... hope it's going to past as painless as it could

 

[M24-CRC]

So we will miss Yaya and Kolo for Jan / Feb for the ACON, now I'm just looking at the cover we have at the moment, and the games we will be playing.

The schedule looks like this:
01/01/12 - Sunderland (A)
03/01/12 - Liverpool (h)
07/01/12 - FA Cup Game
11/01/12 - Liverpool (h)
16/01/12 - Wigan (a)
22/01/12 - Spurs (h)
25/01/12 - Liverpool (a)
01/02/12 - Everton (a)
04/02/12 - Fulham (h)
12/02/12 - Villa (a)
25/02/12 - Blackburn (h)

So there is a lot of games, especially in Jan where the games are almost every 3 days. So the cover we have for the two positions is:

For Kolo DC:
Savic, Lescott, Kompany, Onuoha, Richards*
(*Not his best position but he can play CB)

For Yaya DMC / MC:
Barry, Milner, Hargreaves**, DeJong, Razak, Zabaleta
(** Pretty much perma injured)

If we look at CB we have our first choice pairing and two back ups in Savic and Onuoha, at worse case senario we could play Richards. I think its quite thin on the ground, all it would take is an injury and a suspention and we'd be down to the bones - maybe we do need a new face (Cahill)?

Now the MC is the position that worries me We can only rely on three experienced players in Milner, Barry and Dejong - we have some back up options in Hargreaves and Razak but I think we can rely on Hargreaves and its perhaps not the best time to introduce Razak (with the exception of the FA Cup game), we could play Zaba but can he play that position competatively at the level we need? So what do we do, buy a new midfielder or do we stick with what we have? Personally I would like to see us move for someone experienced like Lucho Gonzalez, or alternatively if we can get Javi Martinez for 15m~ then get him.

What do you reckon we should do for the best over this period, Yaya will be a massive miss when he goes, how do we plug the gap?

NO

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

I have it on good authority that we will sign Tony Grant on a pay as you play deal.

Hmmm not overly convinced, if Ian Bishop is available we should go for him

Paddy V is dusting his boots as we speak.

 

[Jumanji]

We can play Nasri in Yaya's position. He won't be quite as solid defensively (Yaya doesn't make many tackles anyway) and should be fine paired with De Jong.

Nasri has been underwhelming thus far but he can hold the ball and pass well enough for that position for sure.

 

[SebastianBlue]

I have it on good authority that we will sign Tony Grant on a pay as you play deal.

Hmmm not overly convinced, if Ian Bishop is available we should go for him

Paddy V is dusting his boots as we speak.

I am fairly sure Ronaldo is available on a free, just have to cover nutritional costs... and paternity test expenses.

-- Fri Dec 02, 2011 3:44 pm --

We can play Nasri in Yaya's position. He won't be quite as solid defensively (Yaya doesn't make many tackles anyway) and should be fine paired with De Jong.

Nasri has been underwhelming thus far but he can hold the ball and pass well enough for that position for sure.

I think that is more his natural position, anyway, so I think he would whelm us.

 

[Signori]

All Yaya moaners are going to see the difference with or without him at that period unfortunately... hope it's going to past as painless as it could

I think all proper fans realise the impact Yaya brings to the team he's the makeweight for Silva, there's no need to panic buy at all!

then when they both return we have another player to rotate meaning someone gets even less game time..........

 

[MSP]

I wasn't saying anything about buying but it's going to be hard to replace that man while he's there... bloody cups of nations