News: Claudio Ranieri shakes up Chelsea like a child making the artificial snow fall inside one of those miniature winter scenes.

His bemused footballers might as well have been in a real blizzard, such was their difficulty in finding a path through Wednesday's fixture with Besiktas. Their route in this competition is also a little more obscure now that they are third in Group G.

Manchester United have to check their bearings as well, but a 2-1 defeat to VfB Stuttgart in Germany cannot leave them as disoriented as Chelsea. The deserved win by the Turkish champions at Stamford Bridge made wealth look like an affliction. Losing their first match of the season, Chelsea were burdened by their means; the multitude of options left Ranieri in a muddle.

Afterwards, the coach claimed that his unexpected preference for a three-centre-backs system was a pragmatic reaction to the visitors' formation. This was not strictly true since Besiktas utilised only one outright forward, Ilhan Mansiz, and in any case the thought that Chelsea's schemes are to be determined by the opposition's plans is bizarre now that £112m of Roman Abramovich's money has bought a remarkable squad for Ranieri.

The Besiktas coach, Mircea Lucescu, thought that Chelsea were better last season, when there was less fame and more rapport in a fairly settled team. The current teething troubles may actually have come later than expected, since the assimilation of so many new signings was always bound to be problematic, but Ranieri will be accused of hindering that process.

The squad is rotated at such a speed that the footballers appear queasy. There are too few settled points of reference and it bordered on the perverse not to pick Damien Duff from the start on Wednesday when Besiktas were ill-equipped to cover on their right. When Duff did come on it was, again perversely, to operate in the middle of the attack.

Ranieri is still struggling to work out how best to utilise the large group he has gathered at Chelsea, where 23 players have appeared already this season.

Ranieri speaks of dipping into his extensive group to ensure that everyone is still fresh come the spring. It is true as well, however, that he has to ensure that the many stars receive enough action to guarantee that they do not become restless or disaffected. When Ranieri considers his line-up, do the choices have to be made on diplomatic grounds as well as tactical ones? Other managers envy Ranieri his squad, but not necessarily the challenge of sustaining harmony within it.

Wednesday's defeat also reminded him that he can be sandbagged by the unexpected. How could he imagine that Marcel Desailly would fall over and Carlos Cudicini miss the ball when Sergen Yalcin scored his second. The opener will concern him more, marked as it was by the inattentiveness that so restricts the advance of English clubs in Europe. Ibrahim Uzulmez was unmarked when Mansiz knocked a free-kick to him and Yalcin forced in the low cross.

A schooling in the Premiership still seems to be no education for the requirements of the Champions League. This may be the greatest disadvantage that Manchester United face in their effort to become Europe's pre-eminent side once more.

Were it not for the defensive deficiencies, the first-half impression that Stuttgart were no more than a well-muscled, stuffy side might have continued unrevised beyond the interval.

Captain Roy Keane yesterday slammed United's performance and and urged his team mates to make their Champions League experience tell in their remaining Group E matches.

"We played poorly," said the Corkman. "Give them credit. They are a young side but looking at the game you'd have thought they were the ones with all the European experience.

"We have been down this road before and we are going to have to accept the criticism. Hopefully we will bounce back from this and I am sure we will."

Neither Chelsea nor United have encountered anything more than a setback in the group stage this week, but even if their prospects of advancing continue to be good there is a fear that they will carry severe flaws into the stern knockout phase.