QuincyAbeyie at first I thought it's not good, but at least it's just two extra games. But when looking at the table in that mock simulation or whatever, it seems very likely that after 7 games, we'll still have something to play for. Which means 8 serious games. With the old format we'd be likely to be qualified before the last game, so it was effectively 4-5 serious games. Poor players indeed.
I am really worried. For two reasons. First, we no longer do home and away with the same 3 teams. This means that you have to scout 8 different teams instead of 3. That’s a lot of extra prep worn for coaches and players ahead of games that we didn’t have before.
Second, those 2 extra games before January could have exponential effects on team performance and health. It could be enough to reach fatigue or breaking point. The ability to rotate players like Merino, Zinchenko, Jorginho Trossard and Timber will be critical to keep us at a high level of quality throughout the season while resting some folks. But we clearly need another forward in that mix
