Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold has declined to confirm marquees Bobo and Filip Holosko will play FFA Cup final conquerors Melbourne City, instead appearing to issue the pair a challenge to lift their game.
Both were conspicuous absentees from the Sky Blues’ starting line-up that beat Newcastle 2-0 in their A-League clash on Sunday, with Bobo introduced off the bench for 20 minutes and Holosko not in the match-day squad at all.
The Slovak winger and Brazilian striker have recently struggled to emulate their scintillating early-season form.
They were mostly ineffective in Wednesday’s FFA Cup final loss to City and the A-League draw against Adelaide the previous weekend.
Arnold said Holosko had been suffering knee tightness in recent weeks and saw the Jets match as an opportune time to freshen him up.
Yet the coach stopped short of saying he and Bobo would take part in the one-versus-two clash at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
“I’ll decide that on Thursday,” Arnold said.
“What I want is performance, and for me the scales of whether you play or not is (based) on performance.
“Whoever performs and plays well, plays.
“We’ve got plenty good players – Brosque played at No.9 (against Newcastle), (David) Carney can play left or right, (Milos) Ninkovic can play anywhere in the front line nearly, and now Bernie (Ibini).
“So Filip and Bobo are just like normal players – perform and they play.”
Arnold made a season-high four changes to his starting XI, starting Carney and youngster George Blackwood up front alongside skipper Alex Brosque, and replacing Brandon O’Neill and Matt Jurman with Milos Dimitrijevic and Seb Ryall.
Superb second-half goals from star Serbian Milos Ninkovic and returning winger Bernie Ibini made up for a tedious first half and ensured unbeaten Sydney are six points clear at the top of the table one-third of the way through their campaign.
Yet the squad still lacked the cutting edge in front of goal that’s been missing since round six, an ingredient they will sorely need against a stacked City attack that got the better of them at AAMI Park.
“The most important thing for me is to recover and get the boys fresh again,” Arnold said.
“They’ve had three games in a week including two lots of travel.”
Paul
Guest
Is there a problem with both Sydney marquees or is this just more make up story?
Griffo
Roar Guru
There is a lot going on I think with us: injuries and squad depth, confidence, disruption - we should be better but aren't. Zero shots on target to SFC's eight says a bit imo. On the other hand SFC weren't walking the park with us. But SFC are where they are because they are consistently good which counts for a lot in the A-League. Whether they can maintain such consistent points gathering the whole season remains to be seen. I don't think Adelaide will repeat last season's heroics, particularly with a team like Sydney if they can continue as they were. At the other end of the table the spoon will be between those who consistent cannot maintain results: if we don't recruit in January we are a likely candidate as the Mariners a putting some performances together that should bear points soon. Wellington should be doing better but with Merrick falling on his sword the 'Nix may get that fresh air to play and gain results they probably think they deserve. I just don't see Adelaide dropping too many points, nor Perth going through a mid-season slump. In short it's not looking good for us this season :-(
punter
Guest
While Newcastle were poor, SFC has played some very smart football this past busy week, 4pts plus a lost in the FFA cup was not too bad. 6pts clear & some nice signs yesterday.