At the moment the Catalan has only the players he needs. Adequate number of them makes the City the main contender for the repetition of MU achievement (three consecutive victories in the era of submarines). Rotation (and universalism; yes, Fernandinho?) will allow you to keep the team in a flat physical condition, as well as to make variations for each opponent separately. As a matter of fact, in the first rounds, it is clear that the citizens of the city play football best of all, and no team in the world is able to catch up with them in 38 rounds.
However, there is also a catch: the Champions League, as a departure tournament, is fundamentally different from the competition in the rhythm of "one (maximum two) match a week". Therefore, for a successful performance in this format, the qualities of another character are required. No, I do not argue, the same ability to rotate the lineup is necessary. But... Here we should make a short excursion into the past.
As mentioned above, coaches come to the fore in matches of conditionally equal teams. How to disguise the main weaknesses? And not to the detriment of the merits? And at the same time, we need to do diametrically opposite things with the opponent's team! Who is considered a dock in this business?
First of all, of course, Ancelotti. In due time he was invited to "Milan" just because Carlo knows how to achieve results in the face-to-face confrontation. As a result, he took the Cup twice and once missed it literally from under his nose. And in (my) 2007, the success was sensational, because the team with very old leaders were not bought sensible substitutions for Stam, Ruya Koshta and Shevchenko. Just look at the line-up - 14 players "for 30" and 6 30-year-olds!
But Papa Carlo skillfully led a group of veterans to the celebration of the victory parade of the peak form closer to the round of playoffs, having done a good job during the break in the championship. As a result, they didn't sag until the finals to such an extent that the younger rivals could roll them away in the end; in turn, the Rossoneri achieved enough results for a step into the next stage. And it's no coincidence that it was the Italian guy who took the decima so coveted by Madrid - he just had a lot of knowledge and even more experience.
As we can see, Liverpool, at least in low transfer activity, is something like that of Milan. But there is also a more important element: setting priorities.
What am I talking about? The coaching staff of the Reds understands that it is almost impossible to fight at a distance with the Guardiola team. It's a little easier, but still difficult, to compete for the English and League Cups: in these tournaments, the same English teams with the same coaches who can't compete with Pep in chess extravagances - they don't have to play, they have to grab the board and hit the opponent's head. Otherwise, there is almost no chance.
And what then? It remains the LC. After all, it was not by chance that in 2016 Klopp brought the Liverpool players to the final of the European Championship, two years later to the final of the European Championship (not a bad leap in development), and then won the trophy at all.
Let's see how they do it.
1. Support for home stands. I will not dwell on this point in detail: even more or less everybody knows what a powerful support is given to their idols "Enfield", encouraging them to sometimes incredible comeback (for example, with "Dortmund" in 2016). In a two-match format, this gives Liverpool an undeniable advantage;
2. Football, which puts Klopp. Only three words: pressing, pressing and again pressing vertical attacks and power metal. On the first two components, this "Liverpool" is almost the strongest team in the world, and these components are connected: the so-called vertical attacks (that is, when the ball is quickly delivered to the line of attack, often in one pass) are most effective at the moment of an error in the construction of the attack by the enemy, or, as they say, at the time of the change of possession. And the quality of the pressure directly affects the number and depth of such errors. And here are two things.
First, if you put pressure on all 38 rounds, not all units will crawl alive before the vacation. Second: playoff matches are maximum seven, and here you need to be able to give more than 100% of your body's potential. The philosophy (life and game) of the gang leader and the character of the players themselves clearly disposes to it, plus the factor "Enfield" we keep in mind;
3. Cheerfulness and atmosphere in the team. And this is really important. As we have already understood, in tournaments with small stake matches it is more important (if as much as possible simplified) to make fewer mistakes than your opponent. All other things being equal, it is the more played squad that will do it less often. In the Bug system, the interaction of individual elements in specific blocks (e.g. midfield) and between blocks (say, timely support of high pressure by the players of the defense) is well established. Inviting new players will require the redistribution of variables in search of a solution to the new equation. This is one time.