I honestly don't understand the big fuss over Gagliardini's exclusion either. Reading this thread feels like we left Messi out of the CL squad, not Roberto Gagliardini. The guy had a good run partnering Brozovic for a couple of games in the second part of last season, but has been quite inconsistent besides that. Perhaps he has a higher ceiling and is a better overall player than Vecino, but he needs to play regularly to prove it.
In this case, I would much rather prefer that he does it and becomes a regular starter in Serie A, which is by far the most important competition for us this season. Given how unbalanced our squad looks (at least until we find a way to move Radja next to Brozo and play one of our many forwards as AM, or just change system), and the heavy restrictions we have for the CL list, I find it sensible to choose Vecino and Borja instead of Gagliardini. Borja is by no means a world beater and should not be a starter for a team with our ambitions; but like Cafe said last year, he still has usefulness in certain situations and imo is too underrated in this forum.
IMO, Gagliardini needs CONSISTENCY, playing week in and week out in Serie A, and depending on his performances and the context, he might get his shot in Europe in the spring. Until then, he simply isn't that much better than the duo Vecino + Borja to warrant being included in the CL list.
Yes Gagliardini was inconsistent before his partnership with Brozovic, but isn't that true of Brozovic as well? It want long before that that Brozo was booed off by our fans against Bologna so that argument worse for him as well. It qas also more than a couple of games, and even this season, Brozovic finally has a good game once Gagliardini comes in before the 2 worse games with Vecino.
IMO he is much better than Vecino/Borja. I mean, Vecino qas awful the second part of last season and once again the first 2 games of this season. Gagliardini comes in and looks much better immediately as does Brozovic. Borja on the other hand would be useless in the CL imo. The guy can't even do much against slow Serie A teams, I think he would be eaten alive by almost any CL team.