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Sydney FC have gone form strength to strength this season under their new coach Graham Arnold.
They have taken some time to find a system that works for the team and a system that gets the best out of the individual players they have at their disposal. But now they are riding high.
Sydney have come alive after the Asian Cup break with 10 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses. This puts them in first place in the form guide over the past 13 matches with 31 points collected.
Sydney’s form before the Asian Cup was patchy though, with the team struggling to find their best form and best starting line-up. The team had only won four games up until Round 14 when the asian cup commenced, they had lost three games and drew a total of 7.
Sydney’s form was a stark contrast in the second half of the season compared to the first half, so what changed for the Sky Blues and how did they go about changing their team to make an assault on the grand final
Sydney started the season under a new head coach in Graham Arnold, adapting to a new coach and a new system after being set up to get the best of their former marquee player Alessandro Del Piero would take some time.
With Del Piero gone, it allowed Arnold to start fresh with Sydney and put his own stamp in the way the team plays.
Bringing in Marc Janko to be the figure head of Sydney’s attack was something of a gamble, as the player had not played regularly for sometime at club level in Europe. Janko himself admits he was not fit for the first half of the A-League season and took he the time during the break for the Asian Cup to get himself fit.
Sydney since the Asian Cup have developed a style which relies on their fullbacks getting forward and their speedy wingers cutting in from wide opening space. This allows the fullbacks to get crosses in for Janko who is a threat from the air, but also allows the inside forwards to pick up on the second ball.
However Sydney are not just a cross to the big man team, they also have key players in midfield. The play of Milos Dimitrijevic in the middle is essential to Sydney’s attacking play, his passing has become a key part of how they set up their attacks.
If we look at Dimitrijevic’s statistics we can see that he has had, 1,326 complete passes from a total of 1513. This shows that he rarely misses his mark and when he does it to good effect starting attack by playing wide to either an overlapping fullback or one of Sydney’s inside forwards.
Alex Brosque has also become key to Sydney’s form this season by playing as the second striker behind Janko. He has accumulated a total of 7 goals and 5 assists this season, but it is not the raw statistics that make Brosque so key. It is the movement he makes off the ball and the runs across the final third which open up space for the other attacking players in the team, which has made Sydney so potent in front of goal.
Another key part to Sydney’s success has been the recruitment of the players in the break for the Asian Cup. Jaques Faty and Mikael Tavares have become very important players to the team for their defensive abilities.
Faty has come into the centre of defence in place of Sasa Ognenovski and has used his experience and strength in tackling to help steady the defence of Sydney. Even though Sydney have conceded goals this season in high-scoring matches they still have the third best defensive record this season and Faty has helped with that.
However the most important player of the two is Tavares, since he has arrived he has become a rock at the foot of Sydney’s midfield. Tavares’ job is simply to screen the defence and stop attacks from the opposition eventuating. His skill in breaking up play and dropping back to cover as the fullbacks push up has also been how Sydney have been able to win games.
Sydney only scored a total of 14 goals before the Asian Cup, but when Sydney got themselves into gear they eventually finished the season with 52 goals, only two goals short of Melbourne Victory’s 54.
Marc Janko’s form since the break has been prolific, he looks to be on track for the golden boot with 16 at the time of writing. He also scored in a record-breaking seven games in a row. Sydney definitely have played to the strengths of their marquee man since the break.
Other players have contributed too. Bernie Ibini has come into some blistering form at the end of the season he has 6 goals, Shane Smeltz has played cameo roles but has also scored 8 goals and Alex Brosque has 7.
This shows that even though Sydney do have Marc Janko, they are not wholly reliant on him to score. Their goals can come from all around their team. This has been a major reason for their success this season.
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