Marco Kurz’s rebuild of Adelaide United has seen the club claim it’s second FFA Cup, return to the A-League Finals and possibly claim a top-four spot this season.
Despite all this, the German remains without a contract with many wondering why.
Marco Kurz arrived at Adelaide with a sense of intrigue after a fascinating career in Europe which saw him guide Kaiserslautern to Bundesliga 2 promotion and struggle at Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Under a turbulent Guillermo Armor era, Adelaide had jubilant highs such as winning the Premiers Plate but there were long, barren stretches without wins. Kurz is almost an opposite to Amor in terms of focus with his sides known for their hard-running and defensive skill.
In his first season at Kaiserslautern, Kurz managed to prop-up a leaky defensive line which resulted in Kaiserslautern conceding 20 fewer goals while increasing production in the final third on the way to the Bundesliga 2 title.
The most fascinating part of the Kurz reign an evident pattern of improvement. While United currently sit in the same ladder position as this time last year, they do so with an advanced point tally and improved goal-difference.
And it’s important to note just how despondent Adelaide appeared in their title defence during 2016/17. The reigning champions at the time struggled for any meaningful consistency and lacked a cutting edge up forward, being the A-League’s lowest scorers with 25 goals and finished ninth in an abysmal season.
Kurz bought greater defensive solidarity to United in his first season, constructed off a more balanced focus between attack and defence as United became one of the best teams in the league at transitioning between the two facets. The result was outstanding, barring Newcastle’s exceptional transformation, United recorded the greatest positive swing in goal differential in the league.
Adelaide has become one of the best-disciplined teams in the league, recording 28 yellow cards and three red cards this season. It’s an important transformation for a club which has traditionally been ill-disciplined throughout the A-League’s history, having recorded 793 cards to be third overall in the card-raising stakes.
However, improved results may not be inducing more fans to come through the gates at Coopers Stadium as United has seen a decline in crowd attendances compared to the first year under Marco Kurz.
It’s hard to pin that on the playing performances of United as they have seen a rise in goals per game compared to last year while maintaining their now trademark defensive nous.
This all leaves Adelaide with an interesting situation.
Marco Kurz is on record saying he wants to build on his initial success at Adelaide United, indicating he sees this tenure as a project, similar to his work at Kaiserslautern. Every metric which you could possibly judge a coach from silverware to wins seems to validate the job Kurz is doing, yet contract talks have been put off until the end of the season.
If Kurz is prepared to commit to the United project, then Adelaide should be prepared to back him in to complete the job.
All stats sourced via Ultimate A-League and a-league.com
Feature image credit: Ngau Kai Yan
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