Giancarlo Italiano admits he was taken by surprise after the new A-League Men ranking system allowed his Wellington Phoenix side to leapfrog Melbourne Victory into top spot without either team playing a game.
After eagle-eyed fans noticed the fine print on the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) website, the administrative body of the ALM and ALW was forced to issue a clarification on Tuesday - 10 rounds into the season.
The APL announced that, going forward in both competitions, teams level on points will be ranked based on the number of wins garnered, rather than the traditional tie-breaker of goal difference.
The latter is the standard across world football.
Despite the APL claiming this had been communicated to clubs earlier in the season, a number of prominent broadcasters, Western Sydney coach Marko Rudan and Macarthur boss Mile Sterjovski have said it was news to them.
The change means that Victory, who have five wins and a goal difference of +10 , dropped down to second place.
Wellington, boasting six wins and a goal difference of +6, climbed above Victory into first ahead of Thursday's trip to face Adelaide.
"I found out late yesterday after I jumped on Twitter," Italiano said on Wednesday.
"I was pretty shocked at how it eventuated, but I'm a football purist and I've watched it for 40 years.
"I've seen top-of-the-table calculations go on head-to-head, goal difference and now most wins.
"In five years' time we'll be talking about some other scenario."
He said he was a fan of a potential play-off to determine top spot if two teams finished the regular season level on points.
"I like what they used to do in Serie A when they'd play off," Italiano said.
"I'm not saying we deserve to be top because we've had the most wins … Melbourne Victory are undefeated.
"For me, if I was in their shoes, I'd be saying that they should be number one.
"I think that if it comes to the end of the season, and you have two teams that are equal, I actually think that they should play off for that first spot."
Wellington are coming off a 3-1 defeat to Sydney FC and have only beaten Carl Veart's Reds in one of their past five meetings.
"At home, they're very hard to beat," Italiano said.
"They press quite high, so it'll be a very tough game for us."
