2017 African Cup of Nations, Gabon

[kabidjan18]

http://www.africatopsports.com/2016/11/18/cote-divoire-wilfried-zaha-chez-elephants/

Starting 11 potentially with Zaha
Gbohouo
Aurier - Kone - Bailly - Kanon
Kessie - Seri - Serey
Zaha - Kodjia - Kalou

 

[kabidjan18]

https://twitter.com/FernandDdeh/status/802984069852254208

It's official

 

[Power Man]

Zaha!

 

[kabidjan18]

Bitter CP fan noted it looked like a picture from a club signing haha

 

[kabidjan18]

I always thought because Florent Ibenge was able to recruit some top notch guys like Bolasie, Afobe, Assommalonga, Tisserand, and Jordan Ikoko that you know what he must be a pretty good recruiter. However, the RDC has one of the largest binational bases in Europe and doesn't get a lot of guys they need and now I know why, all the recruiting success was in spite of him, not because of him. This is what he said concerning Giannelli Imbula and Arthur Masuaku in an interview

"RAF : Coach, et pour les cas Masuaku et Imbula ?
FI : Masuaku, c'est mon enfant, je l'ai dorloté à son enfance, il n'a qu'à prendre son téléphone comme Imbula s'il se sent prêt d'appeler et dire "Oui, allo papa, je vais venir". Ce sont mes enfants.
Mais pour l'instant, ils n'ont pas encore réagi ..."

(roughly translated: he calls them his children, says they just have to call him and say hello daddy? google translate) This is no outlier by the way, he's referred to them often before with the word Garcon which I think means boy or lad.

These are grown *** adults! They're not your children! Very sweet of you indeed, you know what would be more successful, maybe calling them and saying, "I play a 4-2-3-1, you are my right-side holder, my left back. Here are results from our current team showing we are favorites to make the World Cup 2018. Here are the bonuses for winning games. Such and such a country uses a rotation with such and such players so even if you perform well they are not monitoring and will not notice. Here are pictures of our facilities, if you would like to visit I will give you a tour. Let me give you the number of Yannick Bolasie and hear his testimony of what playing for the team is like. etc." If you actually reason with grown men, then your fans might not always be complaining about the "lost generations" of congolese footballers.

As sweet of a man as I'm sure he is, I hope Florent Ibenge sees himself less as the team's daddy bear and more as the team's manager.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Have you ever heard of a television programme called 'The News?'

ehm yes

but algeria had a bloody civil war, and still such good national team.

and saudi had peace for long time, they should have better team.

 

[kabidjan18]

http://www.lebuteur.com/article/detail?titre=bensebaini-soulage-leekens&id=61196

This should be good news for Algeria. I hope they do bring him in because I think they're the only realistic shot to give us a run for our money. Especially on the CIV Defense vs. Opp Offense every team but Algeria and Senegal are bringing knives to a gunfight. I don't think the "local solution" is a great idea, we saw obviously how Victor Moses made Ziti his little stooge. Since they have a lot of practices and friendlies to implement I actually say go with a 3-4-3.

M'Bolhi
Mandi - Medjani - Bensebaini
Bentaleb - Taider - Boudebouz - Ghoulam
Mahrez - Slimani - Soudani

 

[Power Man]

http://www.lebuteur.com/article/detail?titre=bensebaini-soulage-leekens&id=61196

This should be good news for Algeria. I hope they do bring him in because I think they're the only realistic shot to give us a run for our money. Especially on the CIV Defense vs. Opp Offense every team but Algeria and Senegal are bringing knives to a gunfight. I don't think the "local solution" is a great idea, we saw obviously how Victor Moses made Ziti his little stooge. Since they have a lot of practices and friendlies to implement I actually say go with a 3-4-3.

M'Bolhi
Mandi - Medjani - Bensebaini
Bentaleb - Taider - Boudebouz - Ghoulam
Mahrez - Slimani - Soudani

Le Buteur is pretty much a tabloid at this point, so I wouldn't put much stock into that

However Leekends did say in a press confernece that fixing the D was a priority

 

[kabidjan18]

Bolasie out with an ACL. The horses in this race grow fewer and fewer.

 

[kabidjan18]

More recruiting fails from Ibenge and the RDC. He talked to Elias Kachunga......'s dad, like he did with Masuaku and a few others and heard that the son still wishes in his hearts of hearts to play for Germany. The art of recruiting is thoroughly insulted.

What about you talk to the man and reason with the adult athlete and who knows you might actually get somewhere with him. Pros, Cons, you'll find these little lads are quite reasonable. So glad I'm not Congolese, I'd have no football hairs left to pull. Gervinho gets injured, FIF recruits Wilfried Zaha. Bolasie gets hurt, Ibenge calls a few parents to talk about their little 20 some year old professional football children.

 

[Power Man]

Lol Joel Matip

https://twitter.com/GlennPrice94/status/806865019732455429

 

[Live in the Now]

Matip confirmed to not be going to AFCON.

 

[Power Man]

Boudebouz had a surgery, will miss AFCON

I'm ok

 

[kabidjan18]

Haha, it's Algeria, there isn't going to be an attacking mid shortage any day soon.

 

[Power Man]

Haha, it's Algeria, there isn't going to be an attacking mid shortage any day soon.

We will probably need as much firepower as we can get our hands on , unless Leekens fixes the D.

Feghouli's not even playing in club, Mahrez has his ups and downs, the good news is that Slimani is always performing well in club and that Brahimi seems to be back on track.
Soudani , Belfodil and Hanni are playing well on clubs as well.

Leekens supervised Bensebaini last weekend, so there is that

 

[kabidjan18]

We will probably need as much firepower as we can get our hands on , unless Leekens fixes the D.

Feghouli's not even playing in club, Mahrez has his ups and downs, the good news is that Slimani is always performing well in club and that Brahimi seems to be back on track.
Soudani , Belfodil and Hanni are playing well on clubs as well.

Leekens supervised Bensebaini last weekend, so there is that

Haha and Nabil Bentaleb, and Saphir Taider, and Adlene Guedioura, and Rachid Ghezzal, and Mehdi Abeid, and Yassine Benzia, and Adam Ounas, and Ismael Bennacer. Hanni and Belfodil play in the U21 league, but I'm not yet ready to pity Algeria haha, ya'll have fire for days. Herve Renard even named ya'll as one of the favorites today.

Bensebaini will help. I still think a three back with him, Medjani and Mandi is an idea.

 

[Power Man]

Haha and Nabil Bentaleb, and Saphir Taider, and Adlene Guedioura, and Rachid Ghezzal, and Mehdi Abeid, and Yassine Benzia, and Adam Ounas, and Ismael Bennacer. Hanni and Belfodil play in the U21 league, but I'm not yet ready to pity Algeria haha, ya'll have fire for days. Herve Renard even named ya'll as one of the favorites today.

Bensebaini will help. I still think a three back with him, Medjani and Mandi is an idea.

Forgot about Ghezzal

Bennacer?

Not ready yet , doesn"t deserve a spot right now.

Ounas is a headcase

I like Guedioura he is a warrior and his dad played for the NT. He is limited technically but I would take him to Gabon in case we have a physical battle.

Taider is very good with clubs but has been playing like a headless chicken with the NT lately

Love Bentaleb and he is having a good season so far in BuLi but he needs to take some prozac.
His passion can be his biggest enemy.

Mandi? For some reason he has turned to **** since moving to La Liga, but he is a pro and I'm sure he will get better.

I like Medjani but he isn't playing regularly with his club.
His best role for the NT is the sentinel role, he really sucks as a CB.


As for Renard, he is playing mind games but I like the guy, we should have snatched him before Morocco did.
He knows African football.

Basically a better looking Claude Leroy.

I'm not negative, just managing my expectations lol

 

[kabidjan18]

Forgot about Ghezzal

Bennacer?

Not ready yet , doesn"t deserve a spot right now.

Ounas is a headcase

I like Guedioura he is a warrior and his dad played for the NT. He is limited technically but I would take him to Gabon in case we have a physical battle.

Taider is very good with clubs but has been playing like a headless chicken with the NT lately

Love Bentaleb and he is having a good season so far in BuLi but he needs to take some prozac.
His passion can be his biggest enemy.

Mandi? For some reason he has turned to **** since moving to La Liga, but he is a pro and I'm sure he will get better.

I like Medjani but he isn't playing regularly with his club.
His best role for the NT is the sentinel role, he really sucks as a CB.


As for Renard, he is playing mind games but I like the guy, we should have snatched him before Morocco did.
He knows African football.

Basically a better looking Claude Leroy.

I'm not negative, just managing my expectations lol

Haha, Ghezzal has been in an amazing run of form for Lyon.

Not saying Bennacer deserves a spot, but Algeria won't be out of Offensive mids anytime soon. Same with Ounas, he'll grow up someday. He's buried right now anyways so much depth.

Guedioura and Taider are probably better farther back. Taider was a straight disaster offensively against Nigeria. Bentaleb had the one great goal he'll probably fill in I would think.

Mandi made some big mistakes against Nigeria but he got a little too much I think from the Algerian media. His overall level of play at his position is still better than the others.

If not three back then who's right back? Zeffane is and Ziti is

Haha well I think logically the three teams he named have the best chances to win. Algeria's a favorite like every time. Algeria-Senegal should be a lot of fun, Mahrez eating up Saliou Ciss and Keita Balde playing with whoever is Algeria's right back.

 

[Power Man]

So Hanni has been dropped in favour of Ounas?

Lmao is Leekens helping Anderlecht WTF

 

[kabidjan18]

So Hanni has been dropped in favour of Ounas?

Lmao is Leekens helping Anderlecht WTF

At least you got your boy Bensebaini. Ounas is more gifted than Hanni but he's still a little young and still a little mentally undeveloped. No Zeffane which means you might get to see Cadamuro at RB!

 

[Tryamkin]

I'll take

Cameroon, Gabon

Algeria, Senegal

Ivory Coast, Morocco

Ghana, Egypt

getting out respectively.

Only toss up should be Congo and Morocco if Bakumbu and Mbokani can light it up.

Congo is my darkhorse.

CIV is the easy pick to win, but I'll take Algeria.

Gonna say Togo has a bad group stage.

Group C Group of Death for sure..

 

[Power Man]

At least you got your boy Bensebaini. Ounas is more gifted than Hanni but he's still a little young and still a little mentally undeveloped. No Zeffane which means you might get to see Cadamuro at RB!

Yup at least Bensebaini was called up; hoping he will make the final cut

Oh and it looks like Hanni was called up after all, lol FA comms

This is a preliminary list by the way


D :
Azzi Ayoub (MC Alger), Hichem Belkaroui (ES Tunis -Tun-), Bensebaïni Ramy (Stade Rennais -Fra-), Belkhiter Mokhtar (Club Africain -Tun-), Benyahia Mohamed (USM Alger), Cadamuro Liassine (Servette Genève -Sui-), Ferhani Houari (JS Kabylie), Ghoulam Faouzi (SSC Naples -Ita-), Mandi Aïssa (Real Bétis -Esp-), Medjani Carl (CD Leganés -Esp), Meftah Mohamed Rabie (USM Alger), Mesbah Djamel Eddine (FC Crotone -Ita-)

DMs and B2B :
Abeïd Mehdi (Dijon FCO -Fra-), Bennacer Ismael (Arsenal FC -Ang-), Bentaleb Nabil (Schalke 04 -All-), Guedioura Adlène (Watfod FC -Ang-), Taïder Sliti Saphir (Bologne FC -Ita-)

Offensive MFs :
Brahimi Yacine (FC Porto -Por-), Feghouli Sofiane (West Ham United -Ang-), Ghezzal Rachid (Olympique Lyonnais -Fra-), Mahrez Riyad (Leicester City -Ang-), Ounas Adam (FC Girondins de Bordeaux -Fra-), Sofiane Hanni (Anderlecht -Bel-)

Forwards :
Slimani Islam (Leicester City -Ang-), Soudani Hillal El Arabi (Dinamo Zagreb -Cro-), Belfodil Ishak (Standard de Liège -Bel-), Benzia Yassine (Lille OSC -Fra-), Bounedjah Baghdad (Al Sadd -Qat-), Saâdi Idriss (KV Courtrai -Bel-)



Still not sure about Feghouli, dude isnt even playing, but we will see

 

[Burner Account]

Have you ever heard of a television programme called 'The News?'

 

[Corto]

ehm yes

but algeria had a bloody civil war, and still such good national team.

and saudi had peace for long time, they should have better team.

I know that I'm late with the answer, but since noone responded...

The answer to your question on this can be summed up in one word: France.

 

[kabidjan18]

Gabon got their highest target recruit Denis Bouanga. Could make them interesting.

CIV came out with their team. No surprises.