Phoenix duo Rylee Foster and Paul Temple have scooped the Player and Coach of the Month awards for December following a fan vote on social media.
‘Nix boss Temple was nominated for Coach of the Month for December alongside Perth’s Alex Epakis, Sydney FC coach Ante Juric and Dario Vidosic of Melbourne City.
Despite struggling away from home Wellington remained unbeaten in New Zealand for December, playing out a thrilling 2-2 draw with Melbourne Victory before defeating an in-form Newcastle Jets 2-0 at Sky Stadium.
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 Wellington supporters voting in their numbers to see Temple come out on top and add to his previous award for October/November.
Meanwhile Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Rylee Foster has been voted Player of the Month for the second time this season.
The American shot-stopper featured in three of Wellington’s four matches in December, helping the club attain four points whilst also keeping one clean sheet in the process.
Foster beat Morgan Aquino, Millie Farrow, Emina Ekic, Chloe Lincoln, Sham Khamis, Wurigumula, Kurea Okino, Mia Corbin and Sophie Harding in the fan vote for December, after earning a place in the 10-player voting list thanks to a 76.6 Opta Player Index score throughout December.
With 79.4% Foster has the highest ‘Save Percenatge’ in the Liberty A-League this season whilst also ranking second only to Canberra’s Chloe Lincoln when it comes to saves per 90 minutes.
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.
