Western Sydney Wanderers have to make judgment on Markus Babbel’s future as firestorm rages

In Markus Babbel, the Western Sydney Wanderers have a ‘hands-off’ coach who hasn’t defined an identity for his side, with arguably predictable results, writes Tom Smithies.

Wanderers coach Markus Babbel is overseeing a team without a clear playing style. Picture: Getty Images

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One of the most revealing moments in Markus Babbel’s press conference on Tuesday was a single line, when asked about his philosophy. “To win games,” he answered sharply.

That’s revealing because much of the firestorm of lurid claims that has surrounded the Wanderers this week comes from that question. Ask the players what the team’s identity is, its football style, and they can’t tell you.

Into that vacuum this week have come claims of disenchantment and dislike, some of it driven by former Wanderers players, and centred on assistant coach Jean-Paul de Marigny.

The problem from the players’ point of view – and this view goes back to last season – is that instead of a good-cop/bad-cop regime, de Marigny and Babbel have been bad cop and hands-off cop.

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Markus Babbel is a hands-off manager, let his assistant do much of the coaching.

Whatever they think of his coaching ability, many people around Babbel like him. But he is a manager rather than a coach, in the traditional British manner, observing not coaching.

And those who know him well say de Marigny, tasked with most of the actual coaching at Western Sydney, is old school – formed as a young player by coaching sessions where senior players were encouraged to test the fortitude of the kids.

It’s one of the reasons he was recruited, to offer grit to balance Babbel’s urbane cool. It’s not like the Wanderers didn’t know what they were getting – de Marigny was assistant coach at the Jets in 2005-06, where now-Wanderers CEO John Tsatsimas was first legal counsel and then CEO of Newcastle.

None of this would matter if the team was winning, and football is perverse enough that this controversy could galvanise the squad for Friday’s home clash with Western United. But whether that surge would last is open to question, because of that confusion over the team’s football style.

Questions over Babbel’s future might have bought him more time, but clock is ticking. Picture: Getty Images

A highly mobile front three in pre-season changed completely with the arrival of Alex Meier, once a Golden Boot winner in Germany but clearly unfit and ageing. Players have spoken of feeling that attacking moves happen off the cuff, by accident rather than design. For some teams that works, but five defeats in a row tells the story for Western Sydney.

Ironically the furore might have bought Babbel more time, for the club’s owner Paul Lederer might be accused of reacting to headlines if he moved to change coaches in the near future.

But equally there are pivotal questions to be asked, especially if crowd numbers slip further to mirror the team’s malaise. What is Babbel’s philosophy? What are his plans to address his team’s deficiencies? Does he work hard enough? Do his players believe in him and de Marigny?

The clock is ticking to answer them, with the transfer window opening in a fortnight and the season already a third gone.

“This stuff can kill someone,” Babbel said of the claims made against de Marigny, but in the end it’s results – or lack of them – which tend to define a coach’s tenure.