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Liam Rosenior says Chelsea will continue doing a pre-match huddle on the pitch, despite receiving a backlash for the bizarre scenes on the weekend. The Blues ended up huddling around Paul Tierney before their 1-0 defeat by Newcastle on Saturday after the referee decided not to move from the centre circle.

The sight of Cole Palmer looking quizzically at Tierney as Reece James gave a brief team talk caused a stir on social media. Rosenior defended the huddle post-match, claiming it was not "disrespectful to the opposition" and was instead intended to "show unity and leadership".

But Gary Neville was among those to criticise the move, branding it "gimmicky" and "nonsense" and a false way of showing team spirit. Nevertheless, speaking ahead of the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, Rosenior said the huddle will continue, albeit perhaps in a different area of the pitch.

"The huddle has been blown out of proportion, to be honest," he said. "There's never any bad intention there, they want to show unity. We don't want to antagonise anyone, so we'll decide where we do that on the pitch tomorrow. We have a huge game tomorrow and have the chance to do something special, so I would rather focus on that."

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Speaking on Saturday, Rosenior said: "We're not being disrespectful to the opposition. If Paul had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decision, we have a penalty today. I don't think anybody in this room can say that [Nick] Woltemade doesn't kick Cole Palmer down in the box.

"So, let's focus on the things that are important. My team showing unity is not as important as getting the decisions right on the pitch."

Former Manchester United defender Neville led the backlash. “I thought it was extremely odd. Really weird," he said. "I've never been a fan of huddles. If you've prepared for seven months of a season, four days before the game and then you need a huddle 10 seconds before kick-off to talk and motivate each other, you've done something wrong in your preparation.

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"No words can help you, in my opinion. No words should be able to help you seconds before a football match. You've done all your preparations. You've analysed the player you are playing against. You know how to create opportunities if you're an attacking player.

"You're in the changing room 10 minutes before you go out. You've said everything. What more can be said in a huddle out on the pitch? It's just for show. The fans won't be conned by that. They will judge you on your performance.

"It won't intimidate a good team. It didn't intimidate Newcastle. It's weird to do it in the centre of the pitch. It's like 'what's the most gimmicky thing we can do to make people believe we have team spirit?' I think it's a nonsense. The whole thing is a nonsense. Stop doing it."

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