Watching brief: Liam Rosenior was at Craven Cottage but did not take charge of Chelsea against Fulham
Chelsea Football Newsletter
New head coach Rosenior watched from the stands alongside co-owner Behdad Eghbali and sporting director Paul Winstanley as the 10-man Blues were beaten at Craven Cottage on Wednesday evening.
With Under-21s head coach McFarlane in temporary charge for the second of two matches before Rosenior properly sets to work, an early Marc Cucurella red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity changed the course of the game.
Liam Delap scored his first Premier League goal for Chelsea but Raul Jimenez and Harry Wilson netted either side of that to earn Fulham victory.
Former Hull and Derby boss Rosenior's first match in the dugout after leaving BlueCo sister club Strasbourg will be Saturday night’s FA Cup third-round trip to Championship side Charlton.
“Liam came in yesterday [Tuesday], probably an hour before we were training,” McFarlane said after the loss to Fulham.
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“We were having a team meeting to outline what training looked like. He came in before that.
“He spoke to the players about how excited he is to be at the club, his values, what he wants to bring to the team, what the objectives are. He then stepped away, watched training.
“I caught up with Liam after training to go through where he'd seen the game plan from the meetings, because he'd watched the meetings back at another point.
“He saw training, he watched us train. I spoke to him afterwards about what we're going after today. Because he's come in so late, we'd already done the prep, so he's left it to us.”
McFarlane continued: “Other than encouraging words, other than being really complimentary about the work that we've done, he's given us free rein to pick the team, to decide the tactics.
“We're pretty aligned in how we think about football anyway, so if it was completely the other way, maybe it's different. He's been really, really respectful and trusting and let us get on with this job before he starts with the group tomorrow.”