Wellington Phoenix forward Kosta Barbarouses and Central Coast Mariners head coach Mark Jackson have been selected as December’s Player and Coach of the Month respectively, after a fan vote.
Jackson was nominated for Coach of the Month in December alongside Melbourne City’s Aurelio Vidmar, Wellington Phoenix boss Giancarlo Italiano and Melbourne Victory head coach Tony Popovic.
Jackson oversaw an unbeaten December which included three impressive victories, just seven goals conceded and 16 goals scored as the likes of Ángel Torres, Marco Túlio and Josh Nisbet led the reigning Champions back into finals contention.
The Mariners won three games and drew two in December and have kept that run going through the New Year; Jackson’s side are now on a nine-game unbeaten streak, a run not seen at the club since 2013.
The nominees for Coach of the Month were selected by Football Coaches Australia panelists Catherine Cannuli, Sarah West, John Kosmina, Ian Greener and Gary Gole. A fan vote then decided the December winner, with Jackson coming out on top.
Kosta Barbarouses earned Player of the Month honours for December after a fan vote, eclipsing nine fellow nominees to scoop the award.
Barbarouses scored four goals and notched two assists in five December appearances for the ‘Nix; the veteran scored in three-consecutive games to end the month – a run that would extend to five, an equal club-record alongside Tomer Hemed and Oskar Zawada.
Barbarouses beat Bruno Fornaroli, Trent Buhagiar, Joe Lolley, Robert Mak, Tolgay Arslan, Jake Hollman, Alex Paulsen, Jacob Farrell and Ángel Torres in the fan vote for December, after earning a place in the 10-player voting list thanks to a 75.6 Opta Player Index score throughout December.
The Opta Player Index is based on totals in a variety of statistics for each player. The index score uses subcomponents (such as shooting, passing, defending), corresponding to different qualitative aspects of a player’s performance.
These component scores are combined to create an overall rating for each player. The formula that works out the overall match rating have been developed by Opta’s own team of data scientists in conjunction with our award-winning Data Editorial team.
