The match against Porto will surely be on our minds. And indeed, that match is much more important than this one. We got lucky drawing Porto. Hopefully we pass them and get another lucky draw (say the winner of Sevilla-Leicester). Then, if we make the CL semis anything is possible.
Another important thing, if we do get to the CL semis, will be to have one less concern, which is serie A. If we make a big enough difference in serie A in February and early March, we can allow resting players and we'll lower the risk of getting injuries to important players.
The chance to make that "big enough difference in serie A" is right now. In the next three rounds we play Palermo and Empoli in Turin, and then Udinese away. In these same three rounds Roma goes away to Inter and plays Napoli in Rome. Napoli too have tricky matches against Atalanta and Roma.
We might easily find ourselves with double digit advantage over our closest rivals. Such advantage will be important for what I said above regarding CL.
That's why I don't expect a B squad against Palermo. Allegri is well aware of everything I said here. Plus the match against Palermo is on Friday, while Porto is on Wednesday. Enough time to rest. At most I expect 1-2 changes from the team that won tonight in Cagliari and an easy 2:0 win.
Another important thing, if we do get to the CL semis, will be to have one less concern, which is serie A. If we make a big enough difference in serie A in February and early March, we can allow resting players and we'll lower the risk of getting injuries to important players.
The chance to make that "big enough difference in serie A" is right now. In the next three rounds we play Palermo and Empoli in Turin, and then Udinese away. In these same three rounds Roma goes away to Inter and plays Napoli in Rome. Napoli too have tricky matches against Atalanta and Roma.
We might easily find ourselves with double digit advantage over our closest rivals. Such advantage will be important for what I said above regarding CL.
That's why I don't expect a B squad against Palermo. Allegri is well aware of everything I said here. Plus the match against Palermo is on Friday, while Porto is on Wednesday. Enough time to rest. At most I expect 1-2 changes from the team that won tonight in Cagliari and an easy 2:0 win.

Problem is not the how close this match is to Porto, problem is that so far we haven't rested our forwards enough. Palermo have let in 45 goals in 24 games (3rd worst in Serie A), we should be able to put a couple behind them even with a semi-B formation like Garfield proposed.
