Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is implementing sort of a new strategy to keep his players on their toes as he omits to name his starting 11 until matchday comes.

"I know but the players don't know," Mourinho told chelseafc.com.

"[With] only two days in between matches, I didn't train tactically for the game so the players don't know, so it's a principle I want always to keep. When they don't know I don't like to say. I have to make an option for tomorrow - I have to make a choice between David [Luiz] and Gary [Cahill]."

Chelsea and Schalke have injury problems of their own with the Blues missing Ashley Cole, while Marco Hoger and top-striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar are absent.

Nevertheless, the Portuguese stressed that team play should not be underestimated over certain players going down due to injury.

"It's difficult for a team to be at maximum power, to play a match without somebody missing through injury or suspension," he said.

"They miss a couple of players, but us too. Ashley Cole is an important player for us and is not playing. That's not a big deal. A team is a squad, not 11 players, and they have a squad with players to replace."

"What's the difference between Farfan and Clemens or Meyer, between Hoger and Neustadter? It's a good team, a good opponent, and hopefully we can be better than them."

Mourinho does not intend to delve in on the numbers but instead to focus on the game against their toughest competition in the group.

"I don't think it's yet the time to have the calculator and to be counting the number of points you need to qualify, to be first or second or go to Europa League."

"I think that comes on the fifth fixture. The third and fourth are fixtures you can play just thinking about the game, trying to win and if not trying to get a point, but basically, to play without that pressure of the calculator. We lost the first at home but won the second away so found a balance."

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