Thomas Tuchel says his Chelsea side for tomorrow's UEFA Super Cup against Villarreal will largely consist of the players who have undertaken the majority of pre-season.
The Blues head coach has not found it easy to prepare his squad for the forthcoming campaign as 18 players were away representing their countries at this summer's European Championship and Copa America.
It wasn't until the start of last week – when Mason Mount, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Jorginho, Emerson and Thiago Silva returned to Cobham – that Tuchel had what he would consider his full first-team squad to work with.
The only match action those six players have had in preparation for the Super Cup was in the in-house game that took place at Chelsea's base on Saturday. They are nowhere near full fitness.
And Tuchel admits that will be a factor that comes into play when he picks his side to overcome the Europa League champions in Belfast.
"I think they could start but the question is can they finish? I think no," Tuchel replied when asked by football.london about the fitness of the six players who returned a little more than a week ago.
"They have eight days of training in their legs and a European final after eight days is pretty demanding. Let's be honest: It's too early to compete for 90 minutes at this type of level.
"We have to find a mix and clearly the guys who came in early and have more minutes deserve to start. And the majority of these will start.
"We have five changes but I am not a fan of planning changes ahead of the match.
"It's not a preparation match, it's our first competitive match. We have to consider all scenarios because there could be extra time, we could even play 120 minutes.
"We will have training today and some of the guys maybe start. Then we have to have a scenario in our heads who ends the match, who is better to come onto the pitch, who could have an influence from the bench, who is more comfortable starting.
"This is the challenge for today but it's important not to get lost in all these thoughts because it's a competitive match.
"It's not only about sharing minutes, it's about the first title that we want to win."
