Massive task ahead: Wanderers coach Tony Popovic. Photo: Getty Images

The next month will be the toughest of the Wanderers’ short existence and of Tony Popovic’s already decorated coaching career.

And it will take much of the ingredient the Wanderers are most famous for, unity, to successfully navigate the next two months to compete on multiple fronts, an extreme challenge in every sense.

Having the Roar and Wanderers, last season’s grand finalists no less, both at the foot of the table, at least until this week, was so extraordinary as to not be seen before in the A-League, but at least Western Sydney had and have other distractions.

That the Roar were able to overcome their fellow strugglers this week to start their inevitable climb, as they are far too good to maintain the shocking start, makes sense in the context of the two clubs’ seasons so far. 

The Roar have nothing else to play for at present, nothing else to think about and focus on, whereas the Wanderers are breaking new ground. 

Popovic, one of the rising stars of Australian sport coaching, let alone football, has a mammoth task on his hands to manage a debilitating schedule, multiple competitions and the psychological issues surrounding the team’s ascension to the peak of Asian football. 

Popovic is fighting against the tide of a natural phenomenon, whereby success is as difficult to sustain as achieve. 

Players that once were training and playing with a chip on their shoulder are fired by the provocation of Popovic. 

Players like Matthew Spiranovic looking to reinvigorate a promising career, Nikolai Topor-Stanley itching to reach the level of champion player and a young Aaron Mooy looking to make his mark. 

It’s difficult to run on a full belly, as they say, and the greatest challenge Popovic has is to ensure the fire of ambition remains lit in every player. 

This was surely one factor in the players that were asked, or allowed to leave the club, and the replacements in Nikita Rukavytsya, for example, are having to find their feet at a time when the burden to perform and win is growing game by game. 

New players, a punishing schedule, including several long-distance fixtures immediately post Asian Champions League, and one eye on this month’s Club World Cup is quite a confluence of events to be managed. 

Where does this place Popovic should a win not be forthcoming over the next month, with fans increasingly starting to tire of the winless period? 

Safe, in my view. It cannot be possible to dispense with a coach that has won a league, made two grand finals and won the Continental title in three seasons, having started a new club and set the entire culture in place that will ensure future success is within reach. 

Not that the club owners would be crazy enough to even consider such a path but, in football, as Mike Mulvey found out, nothing is impossible. 

The closest analogy to the Wanderers would be Borussia Dortmund, in Germany, who are top of their Champions League group after several years of great achievements and multiple titles, are facing life without key players and a spate of injuries and, despite possessing one of the finest young coaches in Europe in Juergen Klopp, sit dead last in the Bundesliga. 

Last. Yet, so far, the club is willing to sacrifice a poor year in nine with the coach who did not suddenly or magically lose quality overnight and allow him to rebuild. 

When it comes to coaches, lean periods are inevitable unless one has unlimited money to spend. 

The simple fact is that competing at length in the Champions League then the Club World Cup is not conducive to also maintaining a high level in the A-League. It is possible, but far less likely, especially in the salary cap environment with maximum squad size when the opponents every week are fighting for only one prize. They’re fresh, prepared and hungry. 

This season is potentially a write-off for the Wanderers domestically, who have traded international achievement for continued strength in the A-League. 

The opportunity to regather competitiveness will come in the second half of the season. Popovic’s challenge is to, as far as possible, alleviate growing pressure with points to be in a position to make finals football. 

Their first opponent in Morocco, Cruz Azul of Mexico, have a kindred spirit at the helm in Luis Fernando Tena, architect of Mexican Olympic gold in London, who also bases his football on a strong collective, work ethic and humility. 

Like the Wanderers, Cruz Azul are also experiencing a tough domestic competition heading into the all-important clash that stands as the door to a match against the great Real Madrid. So it will be two wounded matadors with nothing to lose and an incredible prize at stake that will face each other in a test of nerves. 

Popovic will be aiming to have his players park their domestic struggles long enough to perform at their best, as they will have to be, and Real Madrid are the dream he will use to get blood from the stone. 

It would be truly fascinating to see how the champions of Asia fare against the rulers of Europe. Despite everything, it would be foolhardy to bet against them.