Phoenix wins handily! Wellington players and coaches dominated the October/November A-League awards.
Wellington Phoenix dominated the A-Leagues’ monthly awards in October and November, taking home all four individual honours for their players and coaches
Wellington Phoenix dominated the A-Leagues’ monthly awards in October and November, taking home all four individual honours for their players and coaches.
For their roles in the outstanding start to the season in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men and Liberty A-League Women, goalkeepers Rylee Foster and Alex Paulsen of Phoenix, as well as head coaches Paul Temple and Giancarlo Italiano of Wellington, were all named Player or Coach of the Month in their respective leagues.
Following a public vote, Wellington head coach Giancarlo Italiano was voted Coach of the Month for October/November in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men.
Italiano was put forward by Football Coaches Australia’s voting panel, which included Catherine Cannuli, Sarah West, John Kosmina, Ian Greener, and Gary Cole, along with Tony Popovic of Melbourne Victory, Carl Veart of Adelaide United, and Ross Aloisi of Brisbane Roar.
After six rounds, Italiano’s Wellington lead the A-League Men standings after winning all six of their games thus far.
For the Liberty A-League Women version of the October award, the same panel selected four nominees; in the fan vote, Wellington’s Paul Temple defeated Perth Glory’s Alex Epakis, Melbourne City’s Dario Vidosic, and Melbourne Victory’s Jeff Hopkins.
In their most recent match in November, Temple’s Wellington team, currently ranked third in the A-League Women, defeated Perth Glory to take the top spot.
The awards for Phoenix didn’t end there. After a fan vote, Alex Paulsen was declared the A-League Men Player of the Month for October/November. He was chosen from a shortlist of 10 players who were chosen using the Opta Index.
Totals across a range of metrics for every player serve as the foundation for the Opta Index. Subcomponents (like shooting, passing, and defence) that represent various qualitative facets of a player’s performance are used by the index score.
For every player, an overall rating is generated by adding together their component scores. Together with our renowned Data Editorial team, Opta’s team of data scientists developed the formula that determines the overall match rating.
With an Opta Index of 78.7 over five games in October, Paulsen managed to sneak into the top 10.
In the A-League Women, Phoenix custodian Foster defeated Holly McNamara of Melbourne City in a closely contested fan vote to win Player of the Month. Foster made 20 saves, maintained one clean sheet, and had an Opta Index of 69.6 over five games.
Foster defeated Vesna Milivojevic, Emily van Egmond, Courtney Newbon, Morgan Aquino, Emina Ekic, Michelle Heyman, and Rachel Lowe.
