Which Dream Team stars will miss fixtures because of Africa Cup of Nations and Asian Cup?

DREAM TEAM managers have a couple of sizeable hurdles to negotiate this month in the form of the Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.

Dozens of Premier League stars will miss domestic fixtures while they represent their countries in the prestigious international tournaments, including some of Dream Team’s most-popular assets.

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AFCON runs from January 13th until February 11th while the Asian Cup begins January 12th and concludes on February 10th.

Naturally, players eliminated at the group stage will be available earlier than those who qualify for the knockout stages but plenty of Dream Team bosses will need to find temporary replacements this week with many players set to join up with their international team-mates in the coming days.

Some squads are yet to be finalised but here’s a breakdown of which players are set to participate in the Asian Cup/AFCON.

Arsenal

• Mohamed Elneny (£1.3m) – Egypt
• Takehiro Tomiyasu (£2.8m) – Japan

Thomas Partey (£2.6m) was named in Ghana’s provisional squad but the midfielder will remain in England this month, meaning the Gunners will only lose two players to the international tournaments.

Aston Villa

• Bertrand Traore (£1.2m) – Burkina Faso

Just one inconsequential absentee for Unai Emery – Traore has only played ten minutes of Premier League football this season.

Bournemouth

• Dango Ouattara (£1.3m) – Burkina Faso
• Antoine Semenyo (£2.4m) – Ghana

The Cherries will be a touch light in attack without this pair but as long as Dominic Solanke (£3.8m) remains fit and in-form they shouldn’t suffer too badly.

Semenyo has chipped in with three goals and three assists this campaign.

Brentford

• Saman Ghoddos – Iran
• Kim Ji-soo – South Korea
• Frank Onyeka (£1.4m) – Nigeria
• Yoane Wissa (£2.4m) – DR Congo

The Bees have been in free-fall of late and the departure of Wissa in particular will only make Thomas Frank’s job harder.

Bryan Mbeumo (£3.8m) would have been a key player for Cameroon had he not picked up a significant injury.

Ivan Toney’s (£5m) return from suspension can’t come soon enough.

Brighton

• Kaoru Mitoma (£3.4m) – Japan
• Simon Adingra (£3.2m) – Ivory Coast

Two big losses for the Seagulls, especially with Ansu Fati (£3.5m) also sidelined with injury.

Mitoma and Adingra have combined for 201 Dream Team points this term via eight goals and nine assists.

Burnley

No Burnley players are set to take part in AFCON/Asian Cup.

Chelsea

• Nicolas Jackson (£3.1m) – Senegal

The 22-year-old has frustrated fans at times this season but his tally of eight goals is perfectly respectable.

For just an additional £0.3m, Jackson’s owners could switch to Cole Palmer (£3.4m) if the change of formation is feasible.

Crystal Palace

• Jordan Ayew (£3.1m) – Ghana

Michael Olise (£3.7m) and Eberechi Eze (£3.3m) may be the headline grabbers among the Eagles but Ayew actually leads the way in terms of total points (111).

The 32-year-old has earned 22 bonus points, the most among all strikers at this stage.

Everton

• Idrissa Gueye (£1.9m) – Senegal

James Garner (£2.9m) and Amadou Onana (£2.8m) have proved to be relatively reliable performers for Sean Dyche in the middle of the park so Gueye’s absence shouldn’t be all that disruptive.

Saying that, the ex-PSG midfielder has started 13 of the Toffees’ 20 league games this term.

Fulham

• Calvin Bassey (£1.9m) – Nigeria
• Alex Iwobi (£2.8m) – NIgeria
• Fode Ballo-Toure (£1.8m) – Senegal

The Craven Cottage faithful will be hoping for an early exit from Nigeria at AFCON as Iwobi and Bassey are both regulars – the former produced arguably his best performance for the club at the weekend in Fulham’s win over Arsenal.

Liverpool

• Mohamed Salah (£6.5m) – Egypt
• Wataru Endo (£2.3m) – Japan

Salah’s absence will be the biggest change to the Dream Team landscape this month.

The prolific Egyptian is currently the game’s top scorer and only double centurion having reached 212 against Newcastle on Monday night.

How gaffers react to his departure will be crucial in determining the overall leaderboard, not to mention thousands of Mini Leagues worldwide!

Luton

• Issa Kabore (£1.6m) – Burkina Faso

Just the one absentee for the Hatters but an annoying one as Kabore is his side’s first-choice right-back.

Manchester City

No Man City players are set to take part in AFCON/Asian Cup.

Manchester United

• Sofyan Amrabat (£2.7m) – Morocco
• Andre Onana (£3.8m) – Cameroon
• Amad Diallo (£2m) – Ivory Coast

Believe it or not, Onana is currently Dream Team’s best goalkeeper having mustered 112 points by the way of eight clean sheets.

He’s also the third most-selected asset in his position with an ownership of 10.6%.

Newcastle

No Newcastle players are set to take part in AFCON/Asian Cup.

Nottingham Forest

• Ola Aina (£1.7m) – Nigeria
• Serge Aurier (£1.7m) – Ivory Coast
• Willy Boly (£1.8m) – Ivory Coast
• Cheikhou Kouyate (£1.2m) – Senegal
• Moussa Niakhate (£1m) – Senegal
• Ibrahim Sangare (£2m) – Ivory Coast

In terms of sheer volume of tournament absentees, Nuno Espirito Santo is the most-hampered Premier League manager this month.

Sheffield United

• Yasser Larouci (£1.5m) – Algeria
• Anis Ben Slimane (£1.1m) – Tunisia

This will barely make a ripple in the world of Dream Team as no Bramall Lane resident features in more than 0.1% of teams at the time of writing – ouch.

Tottenham

• Yves Bissouma (£2.5m) – Mali
• Son Heung-min (£4.7m) – South Korea
• Pape Matar Sarr (£2m) – Senegal

Son has registered 12 goals and five assists already this season and so it goes without saying he will be a huge miss for a side already riddled with injuries.

Spurs’ No7 currently features in just under a quarter of Dream Teams.

Ange Postecoglou started the season with a first-choice midfield of Bissouma, Sarr and James Maddison (£4.2m) – with the latter injured and the former duo off to AFCON, he’ll have to make full use of his squad in the coming weeks.

West Ham

• Mohammed Kudus (£4.9m) – Ghana
• Nayef Aguerd (£2.8m) – Morocco

AFCON comes at a bad time for David Moyes too given Kudus’ recent form.

The ex-Ajax midfielder has banked 49 points since the start of Gameweek 15 but Dream Team bosses will have to wait until Ghana’s business is over before they can enjoy his plentiful returns once again.

Aguerd is also a significant loss for the Hammers as first-choice centre-back.

Wolves

• Hwang Hee-chan (£3.2m) – South Korea
• Justin Hubner – Indonesia
• Rayan Ait-Nouri (£2.2m) – Algeria
• Boubacar Traore (£1.3m) – Mali

Hwang is one of just six players to have scored ten Premier League goals so far this season while Ait-Nouri is an underrated member of Gary O’Neil’s squad.

It will be interesting to see if Wolves’ results suffer in the absence of their top scorer.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk