[McG]

I play football manager and when I first saw the new format for CL I wasn’t sure if I would like it.

After many seasons (because that’s how the FM game works), I can tell you that it’s a much better experience. It reduces the repetition of home and away matches with the same pots of teams and the same results as you get today. All matches matter because of the pairings after the initial 8 games.

Having teams play 2 matches against each pot will also put some top teams against each other earlier in the competition, but with potentially less risk of getting knocked out.

Match days 7 and 8 are interesting. And the playoff round should be amazing.

I expect the same teams to be there at the end but there should be some fabulous matches up front. It eliminates “group of death” scenarios.

I think that teams will have to get their player pool size increased in future seasons though. Maybe they could allow 5 youth players or injury alternates somehow.