Champions League Performance Insights: Impact of in-game changes
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
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Ahead of this week's league phase deciders, UEFA's game insights unit shine a light on the role coaches play in deciding matches with their tactical changes.
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It all comes down to Wednesday night's matches as the league phase of this season's UEFA Champions League concludes this week.
Between the first and final whistles, the 36-team table will resemble a fast-moving game of snakes and ladders as teams move up and down the standings as the goals fly in around Europe.
As for the coaches watching on the sidelines, they will look to play their part by responding to the changing scenario with an individual tweak here or system change there to secure the result needed.
Yet if the stakes are that bit higher on Matchday 8 – and the margin for error slighter – it is fair to say coaching interventions are the norm in today's Champions League, as the following analysis from the UEFA game insights unit will show.
We have taken examples from three recent matches to show the way coaches are intervening to affect games – and offer a taste of what to look out for during Wednesday night's denouement.
Flick's change of shape
To start with Barcelona's Matchday 6 comeback victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, this is an excellent example of a coach changing his team's shape in possession to impressive effect.
As is displayed by this graphic of their average positions when in possession, Barcelona concentrated numbers in attack in the first half – with five players often high up the pitch. Contrast that with their second-half shape after they had shifted from a 3-2-2-3 to a 4-3-3.
On their difficulties during a first half when they fell a goal behind, Barcelona midfielder Pedri said: "Frankfurt were set deep defensively, which made it complicated." This first video illustrates his point: six Eintracht players have dropped back to cover the passing lanes and the home side have no space to run into.
So what changed? Barcelona coach Hansi Flick spoke afterwards of the impact of his half-time introduction of Marcus Rashford in place of Fermín López. "We needed more width," he said, "but we needed Rashford to drag them to the goal line and change their shape."
As this second video shows, Flick's switch to a 4-3-3, with the Barcelona full-backs deeper, had the effect of bringing the opposition players higher up the pitch. Eintracht were man-marking across the pitch and as their players stepped out of the deep block, Barcelona were now attacking a back four, rather than a six, and had space to run into. As the clip concludes, look at how Jules Koundé takes advantage.
Arteta seeks security with Rice
To move on to Matchday 7, Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta acted to bolster his defence against Inter by introducing midfielder Declan Rice after 64 minutes, with the visitors leading 2-1.
The Arsenal change is displayed in the before-and-after graphics above. Their system remained the same, a 4-3-3, with Rice replacing another midfielder, Eberechi Eze. Yet as a more defensive-minded player than Eze, he was able to support his centre-backs against the threat of Inter's front two.
The first clip shows how, before the switch, Arteta was happy for his centre-backs, William Saliba and Cristhian Mosquera, to go man v man against Inter's two strikers. With Arsenal man-marking across the pitch – pressing Inter with impressive intensity during a hard-fought contest – their central defenders followed suit, despite the risk involved.
With Rice on the pitch, Arsenal were still largely 2v2 at the back but now had the England midfielder making covering runs and protecting spaces around his centre-backs.
Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City coach, has praised Arteta in the past for his ability to respond from the sidelines – "He has a special talent to analyse what happens and to find the solutions," he said of his old colleague at City – and here was another example. As Arteta said afterwards: "The starters made an impact, the subs made an impact and that's all the ingredients you need at the end of the day."
Spalletti makes winning move with McKennie
The third change under the microscope is from last week's Juventus vs Benfica match, when home coach Luciano Spalletti moved Weston McKennie into a more central attacking role for the second half.
In the first half Juventus had a 4-2-3-1 shape in possession, with McKennie positioned on the right of their attack. As displayed above, their set-up for the second half was closer to a 4-4-2 with substitute Francisco Conceição coming in on the right wing and McKennie stepping inside, closer to Jonathan David.
In the first half against Benfica, Juventus tried to play through the lines with little impact and suffered for a lack of runners in behind, as the clip shows.
With McKennie central after the break, Juventus were much more mobile, producing more forward runs. Their improvement is reflected by the contrast between their xG in each half: 0.37 before the break and 1.02 after it.
The clips above show McKennie's movement and his ability to get into the box and get shots away, culminating in the goal he scored to make it 2-0. As Spalletti was quoted as saying in our initial post-match analysis: "He's a player who reads where the ball can go ahead of time."
Coaching reflection: Extra eyes on the action
A final point to dwell on is the support that coaches receive to give themselves the best possible chance of not missing any of the tactical details that can prove decisive at this elite level.
As well as the evidence of their own eyes, coaches today have a team of assistants and analysts behind them who have a crucial supporting role to play. After all, given the speed of the action and the swirl of emotions at pitch level, is not always easy to see every little nuance from the technical area or dugout. A colleague watching from the stands can provide vital mid-game insights. An analyst with a laptop, meanwhile, offers the chance to review footage from a wide-angle tactical camera.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick touched on this 'team within the team' when congratulating his colleagues for the key half-time change against Frankfurt, analysed above. Flick said: "We showed the team what we wanted, what space we needed and my team always knows what to do and they do it, so congratulations to my whole staff. My fellow coaches and my analysts did a great job."
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