Enzo Maresca leaving unexpectedly<\/a>, thrusting McFarlane into the limelight just two days later. Liam Rosenior is the widely reported favorite to replace Maresca, with various reports over the last 24 hours indicating that the sides are working toward finalizing an agreement. Rosenior currently manages fellow BlueCo club Strasbourg, in Ligue 1.<\/p>\nBelow is the latest Calum McFarlane reaction, speaking after making his managerial debut against Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n
Calum McFarlane reaction \u2014 What did interim Chelsea boss say after managerial debut?<\/p>\n
How proud are you to get the performance that you did from those players? \u201cMassively proud. I thought the first half was tough \u2014 we got a few things wrong \u2014 but I thought the second half was exceptional in every facet of the game. I though we thoroughly deserved a point from the game. I\u2019m incredibly proud for the players.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the game plan and halftime changes: \u201cThey shaped up slightly differently than what we expected. When they put six players on the back line, it really stretched our back-four so we had to change the press. We changed it the second half to allow us to go a little bit more man-to-man, a little more aggressive and disrupt their rhythm. They had too much control in the first half, and I thought [Chelsea\u2019s] shape change allowed us to get control of the game and have more passages of play. Andrey Santos coming in in midfield allowed us to get a foothold in the game. Changing the press at halftime, and the lads taking that information on with very little time or very little work, is exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his time as interim Chelsea manager: \u201cThe two or three days we\u2019ve worked with [the players], they\u2019re open, they\u2019re hardworking, they\u2019re honest, they want to do the right things. So I can\u2019t speak about my changes more than them buying into it and applying what we wanted them to do. I thought they did that exceptionally in the second half.\u201d \u2026 \u201cThe group has been exceptional. As an under-21s staff coming in, we couldn\u2019t ask for anything more. No egos, completely on board, training\u2019s been brilliant. Enzo [Fernandez], Reece [James], [Tosin Adarabioyo] \u2014 in terms of leadership and their management of the group when the manager\u2019s gone and there\u2019s an interim in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chelsea captain Reece James speaks about the club\u2019s tumultuous week <\/p>\n
How difficult is it when a manager leaves like Maresca did? ” Of course it\u2019s difficult, but we have to fight for each other. That\u2019s the only thing we have in this moment \u2014 together, each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you know when the new manager will be appointed? \u201cWe know nothing at the moment. This whole week was about this game. What happens behind the scenes is not down to us. We came here focused on the game and we take a point out of a really difficult place to come. We have to recover and play again in a few days, and we will see what happens in the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to accept what went on earlier in the week and put it behind us. We came here with a game plan. We know what level we can perform at when we\u2019re all together, all firing. The first half, we made a slight error for their goal, but second half as the game went on we grew into the game. We knew a chance would come, and this guy [nudges Enzo Fernandez] took his chance when it came.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the game plan and halftime changes: \u201cFirst of all, credit to the staff that stepped up. They haven\u2019t been in this role before. To come to City away as your first first-team game, it\u2019s difficult. We had to adapt fast. First half, we felt they had too much of the ball, we had to make slight adjustments. In the second half we came out with a slightly different plan. As the game went on, we grew into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the team\u2019s leadership, unity: \u201cWe\u2019re in a difficult moment. We have to stand together, stand as a unity. We are one. There\u2019s many [players] that traveled [with the team] that we missed [due to injuries], but so many other players stepped up and that\u2019s what we need. We fought as a team today and I\u2019m proud of the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calum McFarlane made his managerial debut as Chelsea\u2019s interim boss on Sunday and it was his halftime adjustments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-388612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}