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Coaches Robbie Fowler and Markus Babbel have leant on each other during their A-League struggles but will put their friendship to the side on New Year's Day.

Robbie Fowler admits his friendship with Markus Babbel has provided an outlet amid the pressures of A-League coaching.

But the Brisbane mentor says he'll happily heap some misery on his former Liverpool teammate when the Roar face Babbel's Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney on Wednesday.

Fowler's Roar sit equal last on the A-League ladder without a first-half goal in 10 fixtures in his first season as coach.

But Babbel has faced his own pressures, the Wanderers finally snapping a seven-game winless run with a vital 3-2 defeat of Adelaide on Friday to improve to four wins, two draws and five losses this season.

Fowler has kept in regular touch with the former German international throughout the season, but said the pair usually talk about things other than work.

"We don't really speak about football all the time, no different with you and your mates," said Fowler ahead of the New Year's Day clash at Sydney's Bankwest Stadium.

"He's the type of character that will get results - I hope he doesn't get a result tomorrow.

"Look at the way they started the season, he was everyone's best mate and all of a sudden you get some adverse results and it shows where your true friends lie.

"That loyalty you may have had at the start of the season, that just disappears when you get some bad results."

Babbel said he had learnt plenty this season but that his faith in the squad had never wavered.

"We have to stick together, even more now," he said.

"If you stay in this structure, you bring your energy on the pitch, there are not many teams better than you."

Fowler dropped key striker Roy O'Donovan to the bench for the side's weekend clash with Newcastle, preferring Aaron Amadi-Holloway and teenage debutant Mirza Muratovic in attack.

The visitors jagged a late goal in a 1-1 draw, giving them 10 goals for the season and a third draw to go with two wins and five losses this season.

The coach insists they aren't dwelling on their first-half goal drought.

"This thing with pressure doesn't make sense to me ... it's not something we're making a big deal out of (because) the result at the end of the game is more important," he said.

Babbel says he's taken lessons from the 0-0 draw between the two teams in round four.

"You don't get a lot of space (against the Roar), especially tactically if you're not in the right position it's difficult to create chances with 10, 11 players in front of goal," Babbel said.