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Sydney FC coach John Kosmina expects a young Newcastle team to go full gun at his charges in Sunday’s A-League clash.
Kosmina said the struggling Jets were impressive in their draw against Adelaide last weekend and would be just as keen as his team to find a much-needed victory.
The reigning A-League premiers are currently seventh on the ladder and their slim finals hopes could be extinguished should sixth-placed Sydney claim all three points.
But the Sky Blues will also be chasing victory after a winless November.
“They’ll have a go. They had a good go against Adelaide last week,” Kosmina said.
“They’re in a similar predicament to us to be honest, they’ve lost a lot of players before the season started and a few during the season as well.
“We probably wouldn’t be in this position had we not lost the bodies that we’ve lost.
“We’ve gone down a player a week on average for the last six weeks without really being able to replace the experience or the quality.”
Kosmina was full of praise for Jets youngsters Marco Jesic, Jason Naidovski and Ben Kantarovski after their displays against the Reds.
But Sydney FC have their own rising stars, and Kosmina said he was considering giving 20-year-old Brendan Gan a start on Sunday after he made his A-League debut from the bench against the Queensland Roar last week.
A training injury to Mitchell Prentice appears to have opened the door for Gan, though Kosmina admitted nothing was decided.
“I’ve just got to decide whether Brendan is up to a start yet or is he still better coming off the bench,” he said.
“I thought Brendan, how long was he on for, five or six minutes, he did really well.
“He was the New South Wales premier league player of the year so he’s definitely got something to offer, he’s got a good engine, I’m pretty impressed with his game sense and I think given a bit of time he could do alright in senior company.”
Kosmina also laughed off suggestions that former Jet Mark Bridge would crack under the pressure of a hostile atmosphere at his former home ground.
“Yeah, I noticed that in the grand final last year when he cracked in that good finish,” Kosmina said.
“Hopefully he cracks under pressure again this weekend.”
Kosmina said aside from Prentice, the only other selection concern he had before finalising his starting 11 would be the fitness of captain Steve Corica who had been suffering an illness throughout the week.
“He seemed to get through training today, I’ll see how he recovers from it,” he said.
“I’ll have a chat with him in the morning but he said he’s pretty much okay and he knows his own body.”
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