good coach, his weakness is winning big games. He's only won one Grand FInal am I correct? (plus only won the league once? - even Muscat has more trophies in a lot less time coaching). Lost every other he has been in, plus the FFA cup.

I actually tend to think man-management is as big a part or even bigger than what people would have you believe once you are at the top level. The differences in skill levels between most professional footballers are relatively slim (within a league or within the top 4 etc) and it is all about getting the most out of these players and keeping them motivated.

I don't know about best coach as I think that Poppa and Arnold are roughly around the same level, but the suggestion that the team is something of an accident that is entirely reliant on individual talent is a bit daft. When Rojas, FBK, Austin and Ingham are making the same kinds of runs and are all attempting to hit in the same kind of balls as Troisi (bending it around the last defender onto the onrunning winger), it might lead to a suspicion that all three have been told to play a very specific role and are adhering to that role, which is the main driver of success.

I'd get the individual talent thing if it was moments of individual brilliance crafting something from nothing that was the impetus behind most of our goals (ala Mooy and Fornaroli for City last year) but we literally spend each game doing the same thing over and over and over until it works. That's coaching to a structure, not getting excellent players chucking them on a park in a free form formation and hoping for the best (which I'll happily admit was most of Merrick's planning).

Poppa would make a better national coach & Ange the club coach, because he showed in Western Sydney's first season he can get results in shorter time.
The question is would Musky be a better club coach than Ange - both won in their first full seasons, but both learnt in the season after when you lose key players it costs you.
Everyone is playing 4-3-3 now, with focus on possession & pressing, so its not the same as 2010/11/12, although today Melbourne is the best at transition.
Interesting stuff!

Musc*nt is one of the best squad-builders the league has seen. The sides he's assembled this year and in 2014/15 are a clear demonstration of that.

In terms of tactical competence, it's laughable to suggest he's better than Arnie. Even those praising Muscat in this thread seem to be admitting that he's quite tactically inflexible, which is right - this year's Victory side plays the same way the 14/15 team did. Sydney's team this year plays very differently (and better) than their 14/15 side. Arnie can park the bus (2-1 against WSW in 2016, the ACL campaign); play dominant, structured pressing football (most of this season); counterattacking (his CCM years); go all out (the latter stages on the 14/15 season until the GF). It's pretty clear he's tactically superior, and more versatile, whatever else you think of him.

You don't get the recruitment luxuries of club football when you manage a national team. I don't think Muscat is the best manager in the A-League, but even if he is - we shouldn't let him near the national team. He'd have all of Ange's weaknesses in stubbornness and inflexibility, while also being less tactically capable. It'd go very badly.

Popovic seems worryingly reliant on the staff around him for tactical inspiration (see Milicic, Carrasco) and his man management is objectively terrible (he has never kept a team together for more than a season). Imagine if he lost the dressing room with the Socceroos - he can't just completely change the squad like at the Wanderers.

Arnie is still clearly the best candidate to replace Ange, although he almost certainly won't get the opportunity (2007 and all that). Maybe Aloisi if he continues to improve as a manager as he has since the Heart days.

So play based around a roaming 10, who is often playing on either flank, and quick transition after soaking up a bunch of pressure with a focus on going down the flanks almost exclusively is the same as a possession based game predicated on holding a high line with our defensive mids allowing our centrally based number ten to play through passes for our striker/wingers who were cutting into the penalty area?

Even if you only watched the wanderers games, where you were destroyed by our flank play, you should be able to tell the very clear differences in the style of play. It all comes from last season where a lack of pace caught us out when we were losing the midfield battle due to Valeri's absence. The team has been entirely re-jigged around pacy wingers and early balls to counter that weakness so that we can play with our backs against the wall and still get a result when needed to (again, all you have to do is look at the wanderers games). The entire focus of the attack is unrecognisable from last year or two seasons ago.

Ugh....

As much as i hate to say it, the prick is a pretty good coach.

As good as any other coach any in the a-league. Personally i place him higher than Popovic (who does not deserve that title of Asian Champions league winner when you consider all those penalties that should have been given in the final - no apologies for that remark) but just under Arnold, who seems to be coaching very well at two clubs

Ange was a successful coach because he was effective at two clubs as well, and help built the base which Muscat is using. To be good at 1 club is one thing, but to replicate it at another is a true sign of skill and ability. One that i hope Muscat will achieve when he is coaching away from MV (Man i hope he leaves them soon, hate them going so well because of him...) and hopefully somewhere decent.

I had my money on him being sacked in his first full year, and the arsehole one the lot.

Have to give him credit for what he has achieved. I have MV as favourites this year (double Ugh)

P.S. this is a SFC fan speaking too.

A master at recruiting and retaining both domestic and foreign players.

Creates an uncompromising culture of group excellence, has gotten some very powerful personalities to defer to this philosophy.

Never makes excuses or plays the victim when things don't go his way. His defence of De Vere a recent example.

Only once have I ever seen him deviate from his attacking 4213 Plan A. This dogged tactical inflexibility may be a bugbear when it doesn't work, and when it doesn't work, it really, really doesn't work, but when he does everything else right with his squad, with his culture and philosophy, it really, really works, and we're seeing that right now.

The kind of coach that creates a dynasty at a club, hopefully one that will be felt long after he's gone.

The fact that absolute gems like Rojas and Troisi are willing to come back to Victory in their prime says it all.

On the broadest basis of contribution to his club, there can be absolutely no question that, in a sea of hired guns, Kev is the greatest coach in the history of the A-League, and most likely Australian football as a whole. The history of Australian football can be read as pre-Melbourne Victory and post Melbourne Victory, and Kev has been a huge part of that.

Yeah what a ridiculous statement, we've changed signifigantly. 

Previously it was death by football with a rigid structure, high line and waiting until a centrally fixed Finkler could play a wide man in behind and have the striker and opposing winger bolt to finish the low cross at the the far post. We also had a marauding 8 in Milligan that drove deep into the box. That got found out very quickly when teams realised they only had to sit deep and wait whilst we couldn't play our way through whilst refusing to start pegging shots at goal. It also left us exposed at the back constantly.

Now we play with a roaming 10, a fixed defensive midfield pairing and a very deep sitting back four.   What remains consistent is the aggressive press but the difference is we can now break open set defences with quick rotation and movement and still have a marauding counter attack when needed.

Thank you. 

Kev isn't flexible, but his tactics have has us playing much better than the staid formula of Ange. Such a joke that the haters infer Muscat "inherited" Ange's system. If anything he was originally hamstrung by it before he lay down the law in his first full season in charge.

I rate Muscat, even though he's not quite at Arnie's level yet, he's no question the 2nd best manager in the league and is young enough to improve even further.

Would happily take him as AUS coach if Ange wanted to move on after the WC.

That first season with the dumb dual 10's was certainly not what he wanted but he had no choice but to stuck it out. Once he had a full pre-season to actually implement his own way of doing things, we moved to the far more sensible 4-2-3-1.

I rate and respect him Muscat but can't stand him in the context that he is a clear enemy. I wish he'd go off and be successful somewhere else, so I didn't have to see Melbourne do so well. I thought you could see that he'd be a very good coach back when he was doing those tactical videos when Ange was still at Victory. The question of whether he'd be able to manage people shouldn't have been there, he already had been doing that for 10+ years when he was playing.

Whether or not he's the best in the league is questionable. He finds himself in an environment that he's very familiar and comfortable with. Arnold has created such an environment for himself twice. It would be interesting to see how Muscat would handle being given the job at a club that had such an unworkable environment as Sydney did when Arnold arrived.

nice summary.

im not liking any replacements for ange atm.  if his next squad shows some rejuvenation and he lets go of this squadies that cant get a minute at their club - then ange is improving.  i hope he does this and we keep him for another 4 year cycle.  its not just a change in the NT but he is pushing an entire shift in aus football from that position.

popa and muscat just dont have the experience for the NT job.  only arnie does for the minute. if ange goes after russia only arnie is suitable.  in a few years i suspect more of the golden generation will be coaching including in europe.  we will have more options.   im also holding out hope for scott miller to be given a decent run somewhere.  he showed a lot of intelligence and grit in his short time with newcastle.

This guy inala ?



Nah I don't think we need him to lose us another Asian Cup then blame others.

I might be (am) biased, but can you really not see one of the strongest personalities in Aus football, smart and steel willed NOT be able to impose his will, and his ways, on a another team, given the chance? Legit question BTW

I now think that flexibility in the NT role is hugely important. Ange did well with his system at first because most teams weren't expecting Australia to play such an aggressive technical game, we thus had an element of surprise working for us. Now teams have worked us out, as clearly demonstrated in the Japan game, sit back and defend and the Aussies won't be able to break through. 

As the NT manager you need to coach against a huge range of opposition, from the likes of Bangladesh to the likes of Belgium and Germany. Currently Muscat only has experience coaching one club in a salary cupped league, and that club has a significantly more resources than the majority of opposition. He needs to try his hand at another club in a different environment before he can be considered for that role to show he has the tactical nous to be competitive against a range of opposition. 

That's why I mentioned I never questioned his managerial ability based on his playing days. The real question is whether or not he has the smarts to negotiate with the owners of another club stop being stubborn bastards and let him do what he wants. Melbourne knew him well and knew what they would get, another club maybe not so much. Remember Arnold being exceedingly cautious in what he asked for when Sydney came looking for him. I don't doubt that he could do it but I don't think he will ever be in a situation to prove he can do so, at least in the a-league.

Exactly. Talk about the antithesis of man management. What a shit fight that cup was. Keep that @#$/ away from the nt.

^^^ the moment when intelligent analysts obliterate the naysayers. :D

A lot of good points have been made by a number of posters in this thread. I've enjoyed reading it!

Shame some still seem to hate Muscat, because  he was a spiteful, hard man footballer.

If one meets him he has quite a surprising level of charm and friendliness - the antithesis of him as a player.

Should check out the Santo, Sam and Ed podcast from yesterday where they interview him for the whole ep. Good listen.

Average coach at best. 

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

Maybe BuckingAcre/GreenHam is the best coach. :P

But seriously, it's Arnie although Muscat has done bloody well for someone with only a few years experience - he has the potential to be the best in the A-League with a few more years experience and perhaps another club under his belt.

chris greenacre and des buckingham  for best coaches in the hal.

they kicked the living shit outta kev muscat tonite!!!! 

suck shit muscat ya thug!!!!

Things have landed in Muscats lap quite nicely, having been with the club in his playing days and the club being in good shape when he inherited the role, it was a very smooth transition.

Kind of like taking over as CEO of a blue chip company you've been 10 yrs working for, the people are familiar, things just keep moving forward.

Muscat is very good so far, top marks, but his qualities need to be tested in different environments. I think he may become the best for a long time.

Muscat got his selections horribly wrong yesterday. Why would you play the same side that had to work extra hard with 10 men for 40 minutes just 4 days ago? I get that Biester has been a ganble that has yet to pay off, but Austin has been extremely promising and deserved a start. It wasn't a coincidence that Victory's best attacking player happened to be the one who go sent off against Brisbane. 

Don't know what you've been on, Davide, but you've posted a lot of sense in many of your recent posts.

With player recruitment, having five decent  wingers ( Rojas, FBK, Beister, Austin and the young glamour boy) when a team can only play two of them at once, doesn't make sense.

Troisi being down on form, may have been a huge factor in the defeat.  Phoenix marked him well too. Troisi has been on fire lately apart from against Nix last night.