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The A-League managerial pressure cooker

Melbourne City head coach Warren Joyce. (AAP Image/Albert Perez)
Expert
20th August, 2018
22

A portion of Melbourne Victory fans had the crosshairs well and truly on Kevin Muscat late last year.

For a fanbase where nothing but sustained success will ever be acceptable, sitting seventh on the ladder after ten weeks of the 2017-18 season raised some fundamental questions about both the squad and the man coordinating it.

History now tells us that Muscat responded, inspiring a performance that will go down in the history books as an unexpected and giant-killing A-League triumph.

Not only did Muscat’s men dethrone a Sydney FC juggernaut that threatened to take consecutive championships to add to its Premiers’ Plates, they also blunted the fairy tale of the Jets, who looked the Sky Blues’ major threat.

Part of the resurgence could potentially be attributed to the two-year contract extension Muscat signed in March, just as the Victory began their run to the title. It ended the conjecture and refocused the club on the task at hand.

It was far from the perfect season, however Muscat defied the critics and enters this campaign with a fresh deal and, most importantly, another championship under his belt.

Thus, some credit is bought, and the heat has lessened in the managerial pressure cooker that fueled unprecedented criticism of Muscat last season.

Kevin Muscat

Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

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Ernie Merrick won’t feel any heat whatsoever. In fact, after reigniting football in the Hunter, the keys to the city might be in order.

Marco Kurz developed Adelaide United considerably last season; adopting the harder edge it needed after slipping to oblivion following the 2016 championship run under Guillermo Amor. Their fifth-place finish was promising and will have the City of Churches trusting that Kurz is the man to progress the squad even further.

Markus Babbel arrives in Wanderland with a solid managerial biography and should be afforded time to acclimatise to Australian football.

Mike Mulvey and Mark Rudan should be given some license considering their circumstances. With only nine wins in total between the Mariners and Wellington last season, there is really only one direction in which to head.

Mulvey takes over a squad with wholesale changes and Rudan begins his A-League career after much success at Sydney United 58. Both will oversee development with an eye to steady improvement and should be given plenty of time to implement change.

The other four managers might not be so lucky. As I have written previously, Steve Corica has his backside positioned inches above a well-fueled blowtorch that Sydney FC fans will light at the first sign of trouble.

If anyone was seeking the footballing definition of a baptism of fire, it is the task Corica has taken on. The challenge is three-pronged.

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Firstly, he follows in the footsteps of the club’s most successful manager, Graham Arnold. Secondly, millions of dollars of talent and experience has marched or been ushered through the door. To top it all off, the team is based in Sydney.

Don’t get me wrong, I hail from the New South Wales capital but the fickle nature of the place and the tendency for its residents to jump on and off bandwagons is legendary.

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Wanderers foundation manager Tony Popovic returns to home shores following what could only be described as a harrowing experience in Turkey. With hopes of developing his international credentials, the experience ended after just nine games, when he was sacked by Karabukspor.

He takes over the reins at Perth, a team generally believed to have recruited well and with expectation building. The west will be watching Popovic closely and the fans will expect immediate impact.

High player turnover at Western Sydney saw scepticism grow around Popovic. An A-League championship appeared destined after the 2014 Asian Champions League triumph, yet things never quite panned out.

Popovic will win over Western Australia in a heartbeat if he beefs up the fragile defence that has plagued the Glory in recent seasons. With Ivan Franjic and Matthew Spiranovic brought in to serve that purpose and the attacking firepower of Diego Castro, Andy Keogh and new signing Brendon Santalab, he does appear to have some weapons with which to work.

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Warren Joyce lives with pressure – it is the nature of the job when your boss is worth something like £17 billion. He made some tough calls last season and City look, on paper, title contenders once again.

Personally, I believe this will be their year. However, another campaign of perceived underachievement will see changes. Joyce will hope he isn’t facing more and more of those awkward Monday morning conference calls that occur when your boss expected so much and you know you didn’t deliver.

With Brisbane sitting ninth on the ladder after 16 rounds of the 2017-18 season, John Aloisi looked like a dead man walking. Miraculously, and as he predicted, the Roar did their best work in the latter part of the season and scraped into the finals.

While some see the club’s persistence with him as manager as temporary and merely a stay of execution, others feel the form reversal of early 2018 was merely evidence of continuity in selection and the game plan of the manager finally coming to life.

Only time will tell, but if the Roar start the season with a flurry of wins, the heat on the gaffer may subside.

The men in charge are all under immense pressure, yet the likelihood of employment-related consequences varies across all ten.

The chances of them all holding their positions at season’s end? Pretty slim if history is anything to go by.

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