United's fixtures against Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City had been slated to take place at AAMI Park on July 16 and 20, with the venue for those games now officially TBC on the official A-League schedule, before the expansion-side headed to New South Wales for games against Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets.

A game against Western Sydney Wanderers at a venue TBC will follow, before a return to NSW to take on Perth Glory.

But much like Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City's staff and players, those in Tarneit remain in the dark about where their TBC games will be staged when the A-League resumes after Melbourne's latest COVID-19 crisis. 

This confusion has been compounded by the re-imposition of stage-three restrictions in a number of Melbourne postcodes, forcing the relocation of a number of players.

“We’ve probably been affected quite a bit,” Rudan said on Friday.

“We’ve got quite a few players that had to move into a hotel on Wednesday night, they’ve been there since. The number is around six or seven.

“We’ve had a good chat to them, the club's looked after them. They’re allowed to come to work, which is great.

“[The situation] is not ideal for us, because we do want to stay in Melbourne with City and Victory and play he first two games here and then travel.

“We’ve been briefed on the possibility of us moving to NSW to play those game.

"However, we feel quite confident that we’re all doing the right thing and the three Melbourne clubs are working hard to do the right thing as well. If we can look after one another and play in a safe environment we’d prefer to play here in Melbourne.”

The jam-packed nature of United’s upcoming fixture, the six games remaining on their slate standing alongside Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory as equal most in the league, presents a unique preparatory conundrum to Rudan even without a hub scenario coming into play. 

In addition, the decision by the FFA to adopt a FIFA edict allowing for five substitutes instead of three to counteract some of the wear and tear that could potentially arise in the face of such a crunch presents another new challenge. 

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Pic special: Melbourne in action

All three Melbourne A-League clubs hit the training paddock ahead of this month's restart– and we've to the pictures to prove it. Check out the action now.

“Coaching is coaching, I think you always have to plan for any given game,” Rudan said.

“But one big difference is how do you utilise the change of rules that FIFA introduced? For me, the biggest one is the five-substitution rule. We’ve made it very clear to the players that there will be decisions made based on strategy and planning.

“That’s where you really need to earn your crust as a coach. We have been given the draw, we understand what it looks like and we’ve been working overtime in putting a plan together – notwithstanding form does mean a lot – but you still have to have a lot of different plans in place and a strategy to get through this period.

“For us, we’re playing six games, which is a lot more than others. So, we need to be more on point in making sure our planning is spot on. In this period, you really have to work as a coach, how do you take advantage of certain rules and utilising those rules to your advantage.”

A-League Greg O’Rourke told the SMH he hoped that the addition of extra substitutes would usher in highly attacking and entertaining play in the season’s run home.

Eyebrows were raised, however, when the A-League boss then revealed that he had communicated as much to the league's coaches.

PLUS...

Pic special: Melbourne in action

All three Melbourne A-League clubs hit the training paddock ahead of this month's restart– and we've to the pictures to prove it. Check out the action now.

"I've had three meetings now, every fortnight for the last six weeks and spoken to [the coaches] about trying to ensure they make the product as exciting as possible, and make use of five subs and introduce new players and making sure there is a higher interest level through this," O'Rourke told SMH.

Asked about those comments on Friday, Rudan cut a slightly bemused figure.

“It’s an interesting one,” he said. “Because when it comes to an administrator telling coaches how to coach, it doesn’t always go down too well.

“We all want to play a certain style of game but that’s up to each individual and the respective clubs and coaches. There was a lot of messages from coaches to coaches after we were told that.

“I don’t think anyone plans to play or trains to play a bland 0-0 game, that goes without saying, but I think there needs to be a little bit more… maybe respect the coaches because they work extremely hard.

“So, it was an interesting comment that Greg made.

“I understand why he made it, but I don’t think any coach tells Greg how to do his job. That’s not trying to be mean in any way, shape or form, but I think there should be enough respect for the coaches to do their jobs and let them do what they do best.

“Let others critique if it's good, bad or otherwise.

“We understand that the product is important, I certainly do, and I can only speak for myself, how I like to a coach and see the game played. We scored 11 goals in the last two games before the covid period and were becoming the team that I’ve always known that we’d become.”

Elsewhere, United received a significant boost on Friday, with the announcement that captain Alessandro Diamanti had signed a two-season extension at the club.