I think you’ll be alright for AFCON. Bentancur is back, Hojbjerg is hardly a slouch (and not too dissimilar to Gallagher, who Postecoglou wanted). January is a relatively nice time to lose them too, with not many PL games, no EFL cup semi, and a potentially easy FA Cup draw.
There’s also a good chance that most of your other players will be back then. Even just getting Romero back after a few games will put you back into a good position. With no Europe or EFL Cup I don’t think you’ll be in too bad a position for December.
Most peoples concerns are the push for a CL place.
Lost VDV til potentially January so backlines dodgy. Lost our creative engine for ???. And that’s during a really tough run of games.
Then in January we lose Sarr/Biss who’ve been running the midfield for AFCON, and Son for the Asian cup.
Could be a really derailing run of results from here til February.
I think you’ll be alright for AFCON. Bentancur is back, Hojbjerg is hardly a slouch (and not too dissimilar to Gallagher, who Postecoglou wanted). January is a relatively nice time to lose them too, with not many PL games, no EFL cup semi, and a potentially easy FA Cup draw.
There’s also a good chance that most of your other players will be back then. Even just getting Romero back after a few games will put you back into a good position. With no Europe or EFL Cup I don’t think you’ll be in too bad a position for December.