Gary van Egmond has warned he won't be afraid to leave big name players out of his Western Sydney team after claiming his first win in charge to keep the Wanderers' A-League Men season alive.
Van Egmond's reign got off to a winning start after replacing Alen Stajcic last week with January recruit Ryan Fraser netting an added-time goal off the bench on his debut in a 1-0 home victory over Perth Glory on Sunday.
The former Newcastle boss showed he wanted a reaction from the underperforming Wanderers by benching midfielder Josh Brillante and dropping strikers Alou Kuol and Hiroshi Ibusuki from his side altogether.
Japanese forward Ibusuki only joined the Wanderers two weeks ago, while Kuol paid the price for his patchy season that has yielded just one goal.
"It's going to be horses for courses," van Egmond said.
"If you watched the game last week, Awan (Lual) and his impact that he had off the bench, he deserves to come in.
"No-one's guaranteed a place, so you're in a position that each week you fight for your position.
"You do well, it might even be a case that you don't stay in the team, because tactically, we want to do something else - there's a different match-up.
"Maybe there's a different way we want to press. Maybe it's a different way we want to play out. Maybe it's a different way with regards to the numbers we want in midfield.
"Who knows? But we're not going to achieve anything with 11 players and the finishing team is just as important if not more important than the starting team is."
The home victory lifts the Wanderers off bottom and up to 11th ahead of next week's Sydney derby.
Sydney have been at the top of the table for most of this season but fell to defeat in the last meeting in November.
"We've got a good bit of momentum in regards to winning this game and we get an extra day's rest in comparison to Sydney," van Egmond said.
"So that's also a benefit and we're looking forward to the game."
