Africa is bracing up for its epic football festival, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Inevitably, punters are savoring the best odds on liontips.com for their favorite teams to win. But not everyone is savoring the AFCON, especially not Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool risks being devastated by the exit of Sadio Mane, Mohammed Salah, and Naby Keita. With all due respect, you wouldn’t call the AFCON-inspired absence of Naby Keita a massive loss, given the wealth of formidable players, Liverpool boasts in the midfield.
But for Jurgen Klopp, he would be cursing his luck that the two pillars of his ferocious attack – in the persons of Salah and Mane – could be leaving to play for Egypt and Portugal respectively in the AFCON.
The competition will kick off in January 2022. A string of misfortunes – no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic – forced the organizers to push the competition from June 2021 to January 2022.
The tournament would now hold from January 9-February 6, 2022. Well, examining Liverpool’s fixtures for that interval doesn’t cause much of a scare for Liverpool’s faithful.
Liverpool would be clashing with the likes of Crystal Palace and Brentford within the AFCON window.
Without sounding disrespectful to these sides, a second-string Liverpool side can give them more than a run for their money.
But here is where it gets scary for Liverpool – and inevitably exciting for fellow title contenders Chelsea and Man City.
African nations are free to call their players as early as December 27th.
This is precisely the week’s Monday leading to the competition’s inception. Countries like Nigeria are eagerly looking to leverage this opportunity to give their players more time to gel before the competition.
If countries like Egypt and Senegal follow suit, it could be fatal for Liverpool. Why?
Because key players like Sadio Mane (Senegal) and Mohammed Salah (Egypt) would be forced to miss important Liverpool games against Leicester City and Chelsea.
Oh yes, this should make your heart thump as a Liverpool fan. And if your heart thumps, it is definitely not only your heart thumping. Jurgen Klopp’s heart is also thumping.
He has repeatedly fired magazines of vitriol on the African tournament. Most recently, he questioned the credibility of the African Nations Cup by calling it a small tournament.
This is open to argument, but Africans will reluctantly part with their ancestral football showpiece to allow the likes of Jurgen Klopp to sleep well at night.
But then Jurgen Klopp’s worries are a bit understandable. Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane have combined for over 28 goals in Liverpool’s season. You need no reminder that their exit could be a catastrophic loss at Liverpool.
It would be a grammatical blunder to call Mohammed Salah a revelation at this stage. Since he was signed from Roma, the frontman has been an Egyptian thorn in the flesh of Premier League defenders.
Across the last seasons, he has either won or closely contested for the Premier League’s Golden Boot award for the top scorer in the competition. Salah has been a bottomless pit of goals for Liverpool so far.
And this season, he has continued right from where he stopped last season. With 15 premier leagues scored so far (in the first half of the season) and 7 Champions League goals scored so far, it makes sense for the tears to well up in Klopp’s ears when Mohammed Salah leaves to answer the call of his beloved fatherland at the AFCON.
Tuchel wouldn’t be losing much for the AFCON. Who knows, he may be doing the dab dance at Cobham Centre (Chelsea’s training ground) celebrating the reprieve he could enjoy if Salah and Mane’s exits cause Liverpool to drop some critical points.
Yes, Liverpool yet boasts the talents of Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain, Takumi Minamino, and Divock Origi to fall back to. But with the title battle revving up in the Premier League, the managers of all three sides (Liverpool, Man City, and Chelsea) know their sides need to be firing on all cylinders to emerge victoriously.
For Liverpool, they appear set to lose their best cylinders for the AFCON. Pity!