Phoenix coach backs his judgment

Picking a 19-year-old over a former Johnny Warren Medal winner requires a lot of courage of your convictions.

It was what Wellington Phoenix coach Mark Rudan opted to do in Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Newcastle Jets, selecting Sarpreet Singh over Nathan Burns.

It was one of two bold selections – the other being to start Alex Rufer in central midfield ahead of the benched Mitch Nichols and Polish import Michal Kopczynski, who played 90 minutes with the reserves instead.

The Singh selection made sense in a way. Despite his age, Singh was the form player for the Phoenix towards the end of last season, while Burns has not scored a goal in a Phoenix shirt in 1676 playing minutes – almost 28 hours.

Still, many coaches might have picked their team on reputation and hoped for the form to come. Not Rudan.

‘‘I said it from day one, it’s about performance,’’ he said of his overall team selection. ‘‘It doesn’t matter if you’re a foreign player, young, old or otherwise. It’s my decision and I’ll take the flak for it if things go wrong or right.

‘‘I believed in the 11 that started and the good thing was, the players that weren’t selected, or were on the bench, were just as involved and into the team. They were all jumping off the bench when we scored, which was good to see.

‘‘I can’t make it any more clearer about what we’re about. It’s about the team, not the individual, and purely based on performance. The guys that started deserved their chance.’’

Kopczynski’s non-selection was a concern given his import status, but Rudan said it was also about getting minutes into his legs after he suffered a hamstring strain a couple of weeks ago.

Rudan promised a team that would fight for the Phoenix shirt and his side delivered on that on Sunday in front of 9174 fans at Westpac Stadium – the club’s biggest crowd since round one of the 2016-17 season.

It wasn’t pretty at times as they setup in a 5-2-3 formation, looking for quick counter attacks, but they grew into the game and got better the longer the game went on.

Rudan said he hoped their first-up showing would encourage more fans to attend.

‘‘You’ve got one chance to make a good first impression. Sometimes people don’t look at round two, three, when it comes to round 10.

‘‘In front of your home fans, I thought it was a fantastic turnout today, which I only hope will get better.’’

While Rudan was proud of the intensity and desire shown by his side, he also wanted to emphasise it wasn’t all about mentality.

‘‘You probably hear the key words all the time, but we do work a lot on analysing ourselves and the opposition. Newcastle play a certain style and we didn’t play into their hands, and found ways to beat them,’’ he said.

Rudan earned A-League Coach of the Week honours for the first-up win.

His and the Phoenix’s next test comes away to Brisbane Roar on Sunday.