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Message: [QUOTE="SAMCRO, post: 1765991, member: 543"] Seeing there is a bigger financial advantage for teams to finish top 4 domestically than there is to win Europe, my guess is owners and managers may put their emphasis on domestic play. The Bayerns, Barca's, Reals, PSG's, Juve's are all but assured finishing top 3-4 year in and year out. Same cannot be said for any of the English clubs. The EPL is in a pickle, sort of. As a league it is more competitive top to bottom. In the Budesliga, French Ligue 1, Series A, and La Liga, there is a such a gap between the top 5-6 clubs and the rest of the league, it affords those teams to rest/sub players in domestic league games for bigger UCL games, it's less of a grind week in and week out. The EPL is a more balanced league (the top teams are behind the top teams in the other leagues - for the most part - but the middle/bottom of the table are more competitive than the middle/bottom of the other leagues. It is more difficult to finish top 4 in the EPL than it is in the other top European leagues. This forces the Chelsea's, Arsenals, City's, Spurs, United, and Liverpool's to play their fully loaded A teams in most league games, for the full 90 (and those players are going all out). They are less fresh and less rested for the full grind of mid-week European football. [/QUOTE]