The three struggled to break down a resilient Stoke on Saturday, with their tendency to drift into the middle of the pitch causing a tactical problem.

Di Matteo conceded they needed time to adjust but that "I thought today it worked very well, but it will take time for them to know each other better.

"I want them to have mobility and rotation, they are very intelligent at finding free space, we lacked a bit of width at times so we needed our full backs to provide us with that."