Chelsea make managerial decision for Manchester City clash as Plan B confirmed | OneFootball

Chelsea have built a temporary managerial team from their internal staff to lead the team for their trip to Manchester City on Saturday, according to reports.

Chelsea announced the decision to part ways with Enzo Maresca on New Year's Day, with just a couple of days before their trip to Manchester City.

The club is unlikely to appoint a successor in this period, and early expectations would be for Willy Caballero, who led the team already during Maresca's recent touchline bans, to be in charge. However, it appears his departure has been finalised alongside Maresca's exit.

However, according to BBC Sport's Nizaar Kinsella, Chelsea are instead building a temporary managerial team from internal staff for the Manchester City game, while they plan to appoint a new head coach as soon as possible.

IMAGO / Paul Marriott

Ben Jacobs reports that Chelsea have decided to put Calum McFarlane, the head coach of the club's Under-21s, in charge of the team.

McFarlane is also expected to be the one facing the media for the pre-match press conference on Friday.

It is arguably a sensible decision, given that while Caballero technically led Chelsea during Maresca's touchline bans, against Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, the latter likely made all the team decisions.

IMAGO / NurPhoto

On the other hand, McFarlane has at least more experience as a decision-maker, albeit for the Under-21s side,

That said, it is obviously unlikely that McFarlane will have any time to make any significant changes in the team in only one training session on Friday.

The situation is arguably where Chelsea's lack of veterans hurts them the most, since it will now be up to captain Reece James and a few other leaders to rally the team amid the managerial vacuum.