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Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka is looking for more aggression and activity to crack the A League’s tightest defence in Monday’s clash with Central Coast Mariners.
Central defender Stephan Keller and midfielder and new dad Terry McFlynn, whose wife gave birth to their first child a few hours before Friday’s training session, are both ready to return from injury.
McFlynn missed the last four games with a torn thigh muscle while defensive linchpin Keller was sidelined by a calf problem.
Striker John Aloisi remains on a special program of knee treatment.
Swiss international Keller, who was sidelined for the last two games by a calf problem, will add further starch to an already strong Sydney rearguard.
Before their 0-0 draw in Gosford back in round three, the NSW derby traditionally produced plenty of goals and drama.
However, the NSW Labour Day Holiday fixture at Sydney Football Stadium brings together the league’s two stingiest defences.
The Mariners have gone almost four hours since leaking the last of their league-lowest four goals, while Sydney are the next best, having conceded seven.
Asked before training on Friday what it would take to crack the formidable Mariners barrier, Lavicka said “activity, you must be active, play actively, be aggressive.”
Lavicka felt McFlynn would add energy and aggression and was an important player for Sydney.
Skipper Steve Corica attributed Central Coast’s stunning defensive improvement to a combination of factors.
“Maybe a couple of new players and also I think they’ve worked very hard on their defence,” Corica told reporters.
“They were very much a counter-attacking team last year and very spread out and they conceded a lot of goals last year and they’ve worked on that this year and they are doing very well defensively.”
Lavicka said Sydney wanted to entertain their fans and, along with Corica, guaranteed there would be no repetition of the widely criticised long ball tactic they employed in their most recent tussle with the Mariners.
“It’s definitely going to change, I think we did play too many long balls that game,” Corica said.
The game is Sydney’s 100th A-League fixture, with Corica rating Central Coast alongside Melbourne as his club’s two greatest rivalries.
“We played them in the grand final in the first year and pretty much from then on, we’ve had a great rivalry with them, so it’s nice to be playing them in the 100th game,” Corica said of Central Coast.
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