I can't fully evaluate the new format of the Champions League yet, but my first impression is that I don't really like how everything is going. It's unusual to see one leader in the table, while before we had many groups and each had its own leader, this is what created the impression that many leaders of their countries were playing in this tournament, but now everything has been compressed into one table and this is losing its scale for the Champions League, that's my opinion for now.
In as much as i definitely have some blackish too to this new format due to things that it has brought like making the number of matches stretching to 8 games instead of the usual 6 games which to me is just a way for the competition to make more money on TVs and at the end causing its fatigue on the players and not making it that competitive with top players sitting out some matches. Also the cancellation of the return leg phase for the group game also has affected some rivals too.
But one thing this new phase has brought that I so much like is the fact that the lower class clubs can compete more against each other and take points while the big clubs face off each other more to make it competitive and fun. That’s why we have many top clubs in the lower position
This new system is just for the group stage everything goes back to been normal right after playoff stages