Serious questions need to be asked of Graham Arnold’s stewardship and Sydney FC’s philosophy as a club after a completely unacceptable A-League season.
Arnold’s job isn’t under threat, with chief Tony Pignata loath to get rid of a coach who provided welcome stability after the turbulence of Frank Farina’s spell in charge.
But the stardust of Alessandro Del Piero during Farina’s tenure was the last we’ve seen of ‘Bling FC’, an image since eschewed by the board and characterised by the appointment of Arnold.
The coach himself said after the Sky Blues’ thrashing of Perth that his teams are generally built on “aggression”, an approach which served him well when he was helping the Central Coast Mariners punch well above their weight.
But something different is needed in the big smoke, some razzle-dazzle and a desire to both win and entertain. Sydney did neither this season, and it isn’t good enough.
Last season Marc Janko’s 16 goals propelled Sydney to the grand final, but when he went missing, so did Sydney. It was a campaign reliant on and built upon his goalscoring – the football didn’t bring anyone though the gate, but hey, the Sydney diehards love a winner.
Arnold’s failure to replace Janko with someone of similar pedigree showed Sydney for what they are – dour and sometimes competitive. The Mariners clad in sky blue, only with a wealth of resources.
Matt Simon, lovely lad that he is, is not the pedigree of striker around whom title tilts are built. But with Sydney struggling, Arnold found himself turning to him as a starter more often than he should have.
It was a reversion to type, the sort of aggression which enables teams to punch above their weight. Only Sydney are a heavyweight and they should be fighting in the big title bouts on strength of resources alone.
I’m not pretending Sydney were any good during the Farina and Del Piero era, but wouldn’t you rather watch that team or this one? Del Piero alone was worth the entry, and with that in mind, Sydney and Arnold need to change their approach.
In most other leagues, a coach whose side regressed as much as Sydney did this season would be under serious pressure, either for his job, or to change his tactics.
Arnold can thank his lucky stars, and to a degree Janko, that he has enough credit in the bank to be charged with another season – but there won’t be another if it goes like this one did.
It’s time to bring back some bling to Sydney; a bit of razzle-dazzle, a big name to put some bums on seats (this is a wider issue in the A-League which I won’t delve into here) and a tactical approach to excite the diehards who are already there.
It might mean the end for the likes of Simon, Rhyan Grant, Zac Anderson and even the short-of-quality Vedran Janjetovic, in favour of a No.9 of serious pedigree and a No.10 who will light up the league the way Milos Ninkovic didn’t quite, as good a footballer as he is.
It means unearthing another Brandon O’Neill, a hungry player with a desire to play, instead of relying on holiday footballers like Milos Dimitrijevic, who was woefully short of last season’s form, and Mickael Tavares.
It also means eschewing the aggression and punch-above-their-weight mentality Arnold instils in his side, and setting them up to play with a swagger befitting one of the league’s biggest sides.
Sydney have it in them, as we saw on the weekend.
But this isn’t flash-in-the-pan time. Sydney need to bring back some bling and start fulfilling their duty as one of the A-League’s bluechip sides.
In many ways it is Arnold’s biggest test as a coach – a fork in the road for himself and the club.
Now the onus is on them both to choose the right direction.
Sydney Chich
Guest
I think even Arnold himself doesn't know what went wrong this season. But when the 2015-2016 season started, I already feared that the lineup la led that killer instinct quality. They got rid of Janko because he couldn't fit into the squad (or something similar), but it worked ss we finished no. 2 in the table; the replacement was ordinary (they didn't spend much on their marquee last season or this one). It appears that the focus was on young local talent, which is fair enough, but it has to work. There was some buzz early on but it didn't really meet up to the standards of the leaders in the competition. Sydney slipping this year caused s total change in the landscape of the top 6, it was great seeing them neck and neck but it was simply disappointing to see Sydney going nowhere, with no real identity, just struggling all through the season with a dismal final few weeks other than their reasonable form against Perth. The ACL matches gives some consolation to FC fans, where that season isn't over. But the questions need to be asked- who was behind the strategy for this season? Arnold needs to start all over again with wholesale replacements for the next season, and the next excuse will be that the team will be fairly new and it needs to mould together before it becomes a consistent success. This is a real worry. Sydney really should have been a lot more aggressive with its recruitment drive with proven winners in the starting 11 and heaps of real depth. They went half cocked this season, and the result was predictable. The Del Piero era was damn exciting, it was a pleasure to watch, but the thing missing was a real finals challenge. Now we have both competitiveness and flair missing from Sydney. No more excuses a Sydney- Please bring back that FC bling!
Jets Fan
Guest
You didn't answer the question! WTF does shape & form mean in this context??? How are SydFC bigger????
j binnie
Guest
Real .I warned you before but you appear to have a "thing ' about Sydney FC and that of course is your prerogative but as I said before,a word of warning.Sydney FC had the second highest average crowd for the season just closed with a 14 game average of 16,071 (not 12k) and it should be remembered their average was effected by their last 2 gates when they had nothing to play for and got them their 2 worst crowds of the season. pulling their average figure down by a surprising 1200 per game. On the other side of the "numbers game" they actually had the 2 largest gates of the season at 40,539 and 40,382 to both of their derby matches against WSW.even Victory couldn't top those figures in their derby. Cheers mate jb
Realfootball
Guest
Don't hold your breath while Arnie's there, Punter.
Realfootball
Guest
No club with an average attendance of 12k has any claim to be "big". We only have one club that qualifies - Melbourne Victory, obviously. When Sydney FC have 20k members and are averaging over 20k to games, then they can start talking.
Fadida
Guest
Big club, underachieving, boring as hell. I can see it :(
Kaks
Roar Guru
In every way, shape and form, SFC along with WSW and Brisbane play second fiddle to Victory who are by far and away the biggest club in the league.
Realist
Guest
In my opinion most of the team played well. There was lots of attacking football. The problem is that there was no one up front to score the goals. You can blame the midfield all you like, but so so many opportunities were created but missed caused the men up front did not know how to shoot for goal. I really believe if someone like Junko was still at the club there would be no blame on the performance of the rest of the team as they would be scoring goals and winning.
pete4
Guest
It's probably more to do with Moore Park's location which is close to the CBD and with Bondi up the road TBH = "East Sydney latte set"
MatthewSkellett
Guest
Well said Kasey ;-)
Fadida
Guest
The first half of the season wasn't great either. Yes results see better, but all the signs were that they couldn't sustain them. Scraping wins against the run of play never lasts, and there plenty of those. This isn't to say GA is a bad coach. He isn't at all. He's been very successful, and it wasn't by luck. His teams were supremely organised and resilient. But is he the "right" coach for Sydney? The league has taken a big leap forward over the last couple of seasons. GA has been left a little behind, both in performance and philosophy. The challenge will be to see if he can catch up, reinvent himself into a posive proactive coach.
Fadida
Guest
Ha!
Fadida
Guest
Agree totally Real. They have a negative and reactive coach, playing must - not - lose football, when wHt they need is a coach who wants to dominate. Arnold simply isn't that man, which isn't to say there isn't a place for him in the league. As you point out he'd be perfect at the CCM or the Jets (if he wasn't so surly, negative and boorish)
Punter
Guest
Enjoy, remember every dog has it's day
Punter
Guest
And yet some people in Melbourne thinks Victory is the only team in Melbourne!!!!
mattq
Roar Rookie
I'd take Holman (at AU)
Jets Fan
Guest
By what measure Bigger?
pete4
Guest
Apparently Holman wants Sydney move so it'll be SFC or WSW
Midfielder
Guest
I doubt GA will be sacked on the back of a poor second half of the season because at the half way mark they were top of the table. As some have already said some of the Football delivered was poor ... However sometimes people over look for either the good or the bad and me thinks everyone has seen SFC poor points and not much of what they did when it was good... There is no logical reason why players seem to fail at SFC... and often excel at other clubs ... eg Bridge and Santa hopeless at SFC staring at WSW... So many players going to SFC and failing... Just maybe this desire to prove themselves to be not only number one in Australia but a huge club in Asia effects people when they get there... As a league we need SFC to be successful they are in the middle of Australia's media and next to Eastern Sydney a very influential part of Australia. I would take GA overseas and put him with a major club for a few weeks ... but half a bad year for me is a tad to early.. BTW SFC is welcome to offer a swap deal for the Mariners coach...
Realfootball
Guest
Personally, if I hear one more person associated with SFC referring to it has a "big club", I will... well, I will do not much except think how ridiculous it sounds and think that someone at the club should stop their players and officials from making fools of themselves. I've also heard it called, not infrequently, the biggest club in Australia. That goes beyond the ridiculous into outright absurdity. And as for the Man U analogy... words fail me.