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It was a challenging four rounds of football for the coaches in the A-League.
Remarkably, no team won all four games and no team lost all four games during this period. Tony Popovic did an outstanding job once again as the Glory were unbeaten during this period, while Ernie Merrick did a good job under difficult circumstances as the Jets had two Asian Champions League Qualifiers that they were involved in, meaning that they were forced to rotate their squad, but still managed to be unbeaten in the A-League in the four games that they played.
1. Tony Popovic (Perth Glory)
It was a straight forward decision to choose Popovic as the best coach in relation to games from Round 17 to Round 20 as he did a terrific job outcoaching the opposing team’s manager the majority of the time. The Glory managed to accumulate ten points out of a possible 12 and score ten goals in four games playing some attacking football.
2. Ernie Merrick (Newcastle Jets)
If not for the Round 20 match that the Jets played against the Reds then Merrick may well have been on top of the coaching ladder as that game that was played was a scoreless draw. In Round 18 Merrick was unlucky that the opposing goalkeeper, Oliver Sail from the Wellington Phoenix, was probably the best player on the field.
Round 19 was one of the most remarkable coaching efforts I have seen in the A-League as the Jets played without many of their first-choice players against Melbourne City, but they still managed to win the game three goals to 1. Merrick did well to help the Jets claim two wins and two draws in the four games that the Jets were involved in.
3. Markus Babbel (West Sydney Wanderers)
The Round 17 thrashing by the Jets turned out to be an aberration as far as the way in which the Wanderers were coached. Round 18-20 were all rounds in which the Wanderers had a system and played some descent football.
Even against ladder leaders Perth Glory, the Wanderers were coached well from a tactical perspective. The Wanderers won two out of the four games that they played and were relatively well-coached. In Round 19 Babbel did a good job when the Wanderers defeated Adelaide United three goals to one and the Wanderers had good tactics in Round 20 where they claimed a point against the high flying Glory.
4. Kevin Muscat (Melbourne Victory)
Muscat coached poorly in Rounds 17 and 18; in Round 17 the Victory narrowly beat the Central Coast Mariners and in Round 18 Muscat was outcoached by Glory manager Popovic. Contrastingly in Round 19 and 20 Muscat coached well from a tactical perspective, his substitutions against the Phoenix in Round 19 and against Melbourne City in Round 20 were outstanding, so, therefore, Muscat is in the top four.
5. Marco Kurz (Adelaide United)
Kurz had a mixed four rounds of football with just one loss in four games. Round 17 was indicative of the manner in which Kurz coached; at half time United looked out of the game as they trailed three-nil. Kurz gambled, changed tactically making two substitutions and United ended up winning the game 4-3, but that was the only win out of the four rounds for Kurz.
6. Darren Davies (Brisbane Roar)
The Roar won one, drew one and lost two but there were coaches that coached worse than Davies. Davies coached well in Round 17 in the first half where the Roar had a three-goal advantage over United and in Round 18 the Roar played some good football to beat Sydney FC two goals to one. Davies has to improve to be an A-League manager on a permanent basis but has shown glimpses of tactical ability in the last four rounds of football.
7. Steve Corica (Sydney FC)
Sydney managed to win two out of the four games that they were involved in, but they played poorly in Rounds 18 and 19; in Round 18 Sydney FC lost to the Roar, while in Round 19 Sydney FC only managed a draw against the Central Coast Mariners.
8. Mark Rudan (Wellington Phoenix)
The Phoenix failed to register a win from Round 17 to 20, but they did manage two draws. Popovic completely outcoached Rudan in Round 17, but he coached reasonably well from a tactical perspective in Round 18 when the Phoenix drew with the Jets and in Round 19 when the Phoenix collected a point against the Victory.
9. Warren Joyce (Melbourne City)
Joyce narrowly avoided the bottom spot on the ladder with claiming two draws in four games. Round 20 is symptomatic of Joyce’s performance as a coach tactically over the four rounds with City failing to claim all three points despite Victory playing with ten men for the majority of the contest.
10. Mike Mulvey (Central Coast Mariners)
Apart from Round 19 where the Mariners drew with Sydney FC, there weren’t any positives for the Mariners to take out of the last four rounds. The only thing for Mulvey to take out of the last four rounds was the fact that the Mariners scored six goals in four games, which shows that they are an attacking threat and that they still have something from a tactical as well as a morale perspective to show for.
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