Fowler joined the Roar last year, replacing interim coach Darren Davies. In the 2018/2019 season Brisbane finished ninth and conceded on average 2.62 goals a game.

But this season, the Queensland club sits in fourth spot after 22 games and is conceding on average only 1.09 goals per game.

"Without sounding egotistical, the difference from last year to this year was quite frightening," Fowler told the Liverpool FC website.

"We conceded 71 goals last year in 27 games. I think we had 22 games this year and we conceded 24 – that was with a 5-1 loss and we won 4-3, eight goals in two games. I think when you are building a football team, it's paramount that you get the defence right.

"Because eventually once you get that right and you're a bit solid and you're a bit aggressive in a tackle, then I think you can sort of go forward and try to score goals. I think that's what I did, which is probably different to what people may think about me.

"Because I'm an attacker and you think, 'Oh, you're going to score all the goals'. When you are building teams, I think it's paramount that you build from the back and that's what we've done. 

"We were in the play-offs and certainly the form team going in. We've accumulated more points since the turn of the year than any other team."

Fowler said he has "loved" his time coaching in the A-League.

"I back myself, I went over there and it could have gone either way – I could've really struggled and then I'd never sort of get a job in football again," the 45-year-old said.

"I went over there with the belief that I know what I can do, I know what I can achieve. Getting a team together who struggled last year, let's be honest, I knew what I wanted to do. We've sort of implemented it straight away the way we want to play, the type of team we want to be. 

"We had a little bit of a tough start in terms of results but we were playing unbelievably good football without getting the right results that we probably warranted.

"I think we won two in 11 and then obviously the following 13, we won 11, I think, and ended up being the form team going into the play-offs."