Ligue 1 Dealt an Unfair Hand with the CAN and Asian Cup Absences

Unfair: adjective and masculine noun. Definition: who is against fairness. Let’s say it straight away, the coming month in Ligue 1 is profoundly unfair. Because in the middle of a championship where all clubs are subject to the same rules, the CAN and the Asian Cup arrive, redesign the squads, deprive some of their best players and not others. So yes, the coming month is uncertain because African countries are supplying the workforce in unequal quantities. And as the French championship does not have the same resources as the Premier League, none of its clubs, apart from PSG, can afford the luxury of anticipating the departure of internationals in the middle of winter. Everyone will suffer the events.

This is the case for OM and Lorient, clubs which pay the heaviest price with seven departures. Marseille, engaged in a race for the podium, will notably be deprived of Chancel Mbemba, Amine Harit, Ismaïla Sarr or Azzedine Ounahi. OM is losing players who have scored more than a third of its goals at a time when it will have to face Monaco for example, a formidable candidate for the Champions League. Lorient is already at the bottom, 17th and penultimate. And yet, without Gédéon Kalulu, Formose Mendy and Bamba Dieng, we will have to hope to do better with less. Good luck.

Lorient’s Senegalese forward Bamba Dieng (2 R) celebrates after scoring during the French L1 football match between FC Lorient and ES Troyes AC at Stade du Mousting in Lorient, western France on March 12, 2023.

Credit: Getty Images

Nicre loses 66% of its goals, Clermont its goalkeeper, Brest its hero

Reims, without its Moroccans (Yunis Abdelhamid, Amir Richardson), its Ivorian (Oumar Diakité), its Guinean (Ibrahim Diakité), nor its Japanese (Junya Ito, Keito Nakamura), and Monaco, without Takumi Minamino, Mohamed Camara, Wilfried Singo , Mohammed Salisu, Ismaïl Jakobs nor Krépin Diatta, see their starting eleven completely redesigned. If ASM has the squad depth to cope, the Rémois are exposed to a possible collapse.

There are those who lose a lot and those who lose big. Nantes, for example, only loses four players. It’s a lesser evil. But these four (Jean-Charles Castelletto, Samuel Moutoussamy, Mostafa Mohamed, Moses Simon) account for 58% of the Canaries’ goals. Even the recruitment of Tino Kadwere will struggle to fill the void left by their absence. With Hicham Boudaoui but especially Terem Moffi and Jérémie Boga, Nice is in an even more extreme situation.

Terem Moffi during Nice – Auxerre, in the 32nd final of the Coupe de France 2023/2024

Credit: Getty Images

No club sees its strike force more impacted than the Aiglons (66% of the club’s goals between them). Nice already scored very little, how will it recover? Clermont only loses three elements but, among them, lets its goalkeeper (Mory Diaw) slip away. Stade Brestois, the team in full swing at the start of the season, only loses one element. Problem is, it is his new hero, Kamory Doumbia, the man with four goals in 26 minutes on the last day.

Lyon, big winner of the CAN?

And because life is like that, because if there are losers, there are also, inevitably, winners. So who benefits from the crime? This month of January is so unfair that the only club that could overcome a mountain of absences is also one of those that will have the least to deplore. PSG, since it is obviously about him, only lets Achraf Hakimi and Lee Kang-In leave. This will not hinder his peaceful march towards a new title.

Strasbourg, which will only be without Saïdou Sow (23 minutes of play this season), Rennes, deprived of only Christopher Wooh, and Lille (Adam Ounas, Nabil Bentaleb) are counting on this month to take advantage of their advantage. Just like Lyon, dropped so far despite a pleasing end to the year, but which only lost Ernest Nuamah and Mama Baldé. OL’s direct opponents for remaining (Clermont, Lorient, Metz, Toulouse, Nantes, Montpellier) will all lose big for a month. What if Lyon was the big winner of the CAN?

Number of absentees from the squad due to the CAN and the Asian Cup:

6 : Reims, Monaco, Montpellier, 4 : Lens, Nantes, Toulouse, Metz, Nice1 : Strasbourg, Brest, Rennes
2024-01-12 17:27:00
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