Robbie Fowler’s Coaching Career Kicks Off

Middle October sees the kick-off of the Australian A-League and the former Liverpool star is keen on making his mark as head coach to Brisbane Roar. This is the opportunity which Robbie Fowler has been waiting for. Up to now his experience as a coach has been limited to coaching for a short while in Thailand at the club Muangthong United. Otherwise, he has been employed at Liverpool’s academy, lacking any other coaching experience.

Fowler the Reliable Option

Even though many are aware of the lack of an extensive coaching career behind Fowler’s name, he is still considered to be a great option to bring the ailing Australian A-League team back to former glory. He does have an excellent knowledge of the league after spending some time at North Queensland Fury as well as at Perth Glory. Thus he used the words reliable and safe to describe himself once appointed to coach in the league. This might also prove to be more than mere words in the future of Brisbane Roar who already had seen some success as Fowler assisted them into some pre-season glory when they managed to grab the Surf City Cup from Perth Glory and the Newcastle Jets.

Their style of playing and especially their manner of the attack showed much promise for the upcoming season as well as their opening game against the runner-up team of last year, Perth. Fowler was very much impressed with the results when his team won the Cup and stated that even though they can still work on many small things, they have already sorted out most of the concerns. He also mentioned that the team has many good players, and they have the character needed to take them to success during the season.

The Previous Season

Last year, Brisbane Roar ended the season in ninth place. The only club behind them on the rankings was Central Coast Mariners, the basement club. The leader on the list was Sydney FC. Sydney will be opening their season against Adelaide. Adelaide is also under new management with Gertjan Verbeek, the very experienced Dutchman at their lead. Verbeek just moved on from FC Twente. Joining Verbeek and Fowler as the newbies in the league are Erick Mombaerts, the Frenchman at Melbourne City and Marco Kurtz, the German previously managing Adelaide and now in charge of Melbourne Victory.

While the two clubs from Melbourne will face each other, Western Sydney Wanderers and the Mariners and New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix and Western United will also meet in the opening matches taking place soon. Western United was included this year as the 11th team when the A-League was expanded to add one more group. Another edition to achieve a total of 12 units, is scheduled for next year.