Speaking with Fox Sports, the highly regarded 42-year-old coach said the rollercoaster of winning the ACL, going to the Club World Cup in Morocco but plummeting in the A-League was all part of a learning curve for his club and players.
“Everyone was probably counting down the days till the season finishes. But in the end, it was very difficult but it was also a learning curve.
“I don’t want to make excuses but there were reasons for the difficulties we had.
“We learnt a lot in that period. I believe we grew a lot in that period. We got through a tough time.
“Now we’re in a position where we can move on from that.”
“We could’ve put it down to a poor season and kept that group together and move on again,” he added when explaining his large-scale roster changes.
“But I felt it was the right time to change… to evolve, changes were necessary.”
