In the final months of his tenure as Socceroos coach, Ange Postecoglou cut a perpetually bristly and clearly frustrated figure, despite securing 2018 World Cup qualification.

But with three games left in his second season coaching Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, and a J.League title well within his sights, the former Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory and South Melbourne boss sounds a world away from those troubled times.

"I am just freer now. I've always thought there has got to be more to what we do, sport and particularly coaching, than winning or losing. There's got to be something beyond the result, because everyone wants to win," Postecoglou told SEN on Tuesday morning.

"The trick here was I kind of knew this football works but how can I go into a new country where culturally they're very different, it's a conservative nation, they play their sport conservatively and that's the antithesis of what I am trying to create.