Western Sydney coach Gary van Egmond says it’s “sad” to see the state of the Wanderers, questioning his players’ desire and slamming the club’s lack of an on-field identity.
The A-League cellar dwellers’ miserable season continued on Friday night with a 4-2 loss to Adelaide United in front of a small crowd at CommBank Stadium.
“It wasn’t unfortunate – we didn’t want it as much as them,” van Egmond said.
“That’s the truth of the matter. We can talk tactics, we can talk passing, rotations, we can talk whatever you like, but until you want it and your desperate … it won’t matter.
“It’s not everyone. There’s a core group that I can say for sure is putting their hand up working hard, whether that’s on the track or whether that’s on the field but it has to be a consistent 11.”
Former Newcastle Jets boss van Egmond, who took over from the sacked Alen Stajcic in January, won’t be Western Sydney’s coach next season, with current Sydney FC mentor Ufuk Talay set to be offered a multi-year deal to take charge of the Wanderers.
Current Wanderers assistant coach Milos Ninkovic could also be elevated to a sporting director’s role as part of a huge Western Sydney shake-up.
However, van Egmond – who will remain at the club in some capacity, most likely as a technical director – said a “game model” had to be consistent throughout the club and that a coaching appointment needed to be made accordingly.
“That’s got to become consistent, so if a coach comes in, he understands this is the game model, this is the player characteristics of each position and this is how we do things at here at Western Sydney Wanderers,” he said.
Van Egmond suggested that lack a consistent Wanderers’ style and identity stemmed back to 2017 when the club’s inaugural coach Tony Popovic resigned and replaced by Spanish mentor Josip Gombau, following a brief period in which Popovic’s assistant Hayden Foxe took over in a caretaker capacity.
“Say we equate it to music, and say we think ‘Poppa’ (Popovic) is AC/DC, Gombau is Mariah Carey,” van Egmond said.
“You’ve got this huge difference straight away. You need to ensure that you’ve got that consistency of what that (style) is going to look like.
“It’s also very important regarding the characteristics of the players that are coming through in each position, and that’s not just in your first-grade squad. That’s in your NPL squad, that’s in regards to your youth, so that players coming through that you’ve scouted are being coached in the same manner … and we’re not there yet.”
“It’s just so sad to see where we’re at right at this moment, but I know it can get better.”
