André Villas-Boas has stressed he will only succeed as Chelsea manager if he gets the squad to believe in his coaching methods so they will "die" for the cause.

The 33-year-old's treble success at Porto last season – the Portuguese club won the domestic title, cup and the Europa League – was built largely on his devotion to preparation and attention to detail. Villas-Boas will adopt the same approach at Stamford Bridge, in contrast to the more relaxed reign of his predecessor, Carlo Ancelotti.

"It's not the case that managers who approach the game in the other way are not successful," Villas-Boas told Chelsea magazine. "You can be successful in the game in various different ways. The most important thing is that the idea you want to sell, the players are able to buy it; that it doesn't seem something so out of the ordinary that they are not able to commit and die for you and for the cause."

Villas-Boas also reiterated his desire to bring a more attacking style of play to Chelsea. Porto scored a remarkable 145 goals in 58 games last term, something he believes was born of his ability to "free players of decision-making".

"It's not just a case of the manager arriving, changing things and that's why they score," he said. "You free them from the limitations that they might have in a different kind of system but, in the end, you make them believe in their qualities and this is the most important thing. For you to exploit the potential of every player to the full, you have to give them a certain amount of freedom, or else they will never test it.

"So we encourage them to make better decisions, give them freedom of choice a lot. Once you go towards finding that talent, you can end up with players transcending themselves and doing things they thought they could never do."

Asked if his time working as an opposition scout for Chelsea between 2004 and 2007 would help him, Villas-Boas said: "I think it always makes things easier. You know where the people you need are and you know the skills they have. Of course, the club hasn't stopped in time from when I left, it has evolved a lot in various ways. But to have the kind of empathy that I have with the people around is decisive.

"I was part of that group dynamic when we were here before with José [Mourinho]. Fortunately, they were good times for the club – we won trophies – and that's the kind of motivation I want to raise within our group.

"It's a big challenge, of course. We are speaking about one of the biggest clubs in the world. Everybody knows the expectations of the Chelsea supporters. I think we are on for a great season. Coming here is not just a question of big, radical changes. I'm confident that we have enough people with the quality here to go forward."