The Champions League always has a funny dynamic.
On the one hand it’s the biggest and most prestigious club competition in the world, but on the other hand the group stage is just a means to getting to the knockouts.
You need the points to quality, but anything more than the number needed to finish top are wasted. You can’t take them with you, as they say.
So in a busy season like this one, the priority is to balance rotating your squad to keep them fresh for the league, while ensuring your team is strong enough to qualify for the next phase.
Tonight we have the first game in our group stage, against Dinamo Zagred, and Thomas Tuchel has made his strategy clear by leaving key man Thiago Silva at home.
There are plenty of quality players ready to step in for the Brazilian, but we will likely see similar changes in other areas of the team as we get our first rotations of the campaign.
