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Arnold to look at Sydney's slow starts

Will Graham Arnold find a way for the Socceroos to score? (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
21st October, 2017
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Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold will look at his team’s pre-game preparations after expressing concern about some tardy starts.

The Sky Blues were in danger of losing an A-League home match for the first time since April 2016, when they conceded the first two goals in Saturday’s derby against Western Sydney Wanderers.

Headers from Spanish striker Oriel Riera and defender Brendan Hamill threatened to earn the Wanderers their first win in six attempts and four years at Allianz Stadium.

Sydney pulled a goal back from a Bobo penalty just before halftime and Josh Brillante equalised just after the hour.

“Two sloppy goals, two terrible goals that we conceded,” Arnold said.

“Something I need to to address is our start in games.

“It’s not the first time we’ve started like that, but to show the character that we did was fantastic.”

Asked for the reason behind the the sluggish starts Arnold said “there seems to be a long time between coming in after the warm-up and going out.

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“It’s probably a good 10, 12 minutes, so we need to do something around that.”

Sydney have conceded four goals in their first two home games, as many as they did at home throughout the entire 2016-17 regular season.

The Wanderers continued their unbeaten start to the campaign, but Arnold wasn’t keen to talk about them when asked if he thought they would be a threat this season.

“I’d rather look at us, I don’t want to talk about the opposition,” Arnold said.

“It’s all about us and making sure that we’re ready and we’re prepared the right way, and we’ve got a gam plan in place.

“It’s the first time we’ve played them this year, so it’s clear you can see that they only play long and direct, so we’ll be ready for that next time.”

Arnold also revealed Polish international winger Adrian Mierzejewsk came close to playing on Saturday despite having a hamstring issue.

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“Hamstring (injury lengths) are always whatever the physios say (and) you add one week just to make sure but he’ll be fine for next week,” he said.

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