City's insipid 3-0 defeat to Sydney does not bode well

Unchanged, that’s how Sydney entered this match, three days after losing the FFA Cup final.

It’s clear Steve Corica is maintaining Graham Arnold’s rotation policy, by not having one. It mattered little, as the premiers eased to a 3-0 win over a sluggish Melbourne City team that gave no indication they were keen to prey on a potentially fatigued opponent.

This was, perhaps, the best opportunity for City to end their bogey run against the Sky Blues, and, frankly, they seemed too inert to take it.

Of course, with Siem de Jong and Trent Buhagiar out injured, there were fewer bodies for Sydney to rotate, even if they had wanted to. Daniel De Silva – fit enough for a Cup final cameo – was again on the bench, with the workmanlike Paulo Retre starting on the right.

Warren Joyce had adjusted his attack, starting Dario Vidosic in place of Lachie Wales; Wales had not been great against Central Coast last weekend, and Vidosic had scored the equaliser promptly after coming on. He had also moved Harrison Delbridge, who had been poor at full back against the Mariners, back to his natural centre back spot, with Scott Jameison slipped into the left back role. 

Sydney began rolling through their passes; City are still conservative under Joyce, and seemed content to allow their opponents to knock it around. This is a bad idea against Sydney, because the more slow and easy possession they have, the more likely they are to suddenly click and cut straight through. 

The other effect of willingly ceding the ball in the early stanzas of the game is that it prevents City from warming up their touch, from settling into the groove of the contest; when Michael Zullo robbed a ponderous Riley McGree of the ball, planting the seed for the goal that would then flower, it was an example of these downsides in action. Worked expertly out to the right, a banged cross from Rhyan Grant was sent in low, a daisy-cutter, and Retre needed only to glance at it with his foot to turn it past Eugene Galekovic. 

City’s forays forward, in sharp contrast to Sydney’s play, were largely comprised of straight-line runs, Bruno Fornaroli, Vidosic, then McGree, all dashing through the midfield with urgency. Only McGree’s made any telling progress into a shooting position, and even then it was heavily deflected and dribbled into Andrew Redmayne’s hands harmlessly.

How do Sydney FC look this year? (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

These breakaways were only possible when City were able to bust through Sydney’s formidable central line, the second four in their off-the-ball 4-4-2 formation. Adam Le Fondre and Alex Brosque were pressing up top, but the true rampart – that only these dashing City dribblers could occasionally pierce – was the line formed by the Retre, Brandon O’Neill, Josh Brillante, and Milos Ninkovic.

Retre’s defensive efforts have been noted, and Ninkovic’s work rate off the ball has been a large part of what’s made him the league’s best all-around attacker over the past two seasons. Here they only added to those reputations, becoming part of a disruptive line, closing off passing channels when their team were without possession. Invariably, when City could manage progressive passing they were forced to do it down the flanks. Hero-ball dribbles into cul de sacs were also common.

City finished the first half well, and the fact their attacking play was largely wing-based wasn’t all bad, considering the position of their marquee Ritchie de Laet. His deliveries weren’t always properly cued, but they almost always had a delicious whip to them.

City began the second half much more brightly, with Kearyn Baccus shooting from distance, and then Vidosic awfully unlucky not to score with a diving header that struck Redmayne square on the torso. Either side of the keeper, and it would have been 1-1.

Sydney have weathered more powerful swells from better teams invigorated from a half time break though, and eventually took up the reins of the game again. 

Retre was having an excellent game, popping up with some neat flicks, a rather more central actor in the attacking play than he has yet been this season. It was Retre who laid on the second Sydney goal, a gorgeous slaloming sequence down the right.

Initiated by Ninkovic, the true catalysing interchange happened between the also excellent Grant and Le Fondre, but when Grant speared a sharp square ball into Retre, he had to stab a perfectly weighted through ball to Le Fondre, leaning back and with only a half second to prepare. 

He did so with aplomb, and Le Fondre dinked over the outrushing Galekovic. It was a sumptuous goal.

Ninkovic’s versatility highlights how Sydney FC’s multi-faceted approach brought them success. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)

Retre was subbed immediately afterwards, for De Silva, the standard change Corica makes, and an indication of how set he is in these scripted subs, considering how good a game Retre was having. Charles Lokoli Ngoy was also brought on for Brosque later on, at the approximate moment he always does.

Luke Brattan and Baccus were being squeezed out of the midfield by Sydney’s central unit, and it meant that passes coming into the attack were either long floated balls – which were only connecting every so often – or speared vertical fizzers along the ground into marked men which, with the exception of Fornaroli, City’s attackers were having a hard time controlling and making use of. Brattan and Baccus were both brought off with 15 minutes remaining, sign, if nothing else, of how overshadowed they had been by their Sky Blue counterparts.

Schenkeveld was highlighting those exposed thighs of his, pumping into midfield to try and show some initiative, but his passes were being broken up too. City were keeping the ball now, and finished with nearly 60 per cent possession, but almost all of it was stale.

Joyce’s bench is fairly short, especially on attacking options; Anthony Caceres came on, and Wales was sitting there too but, really, for a club of City’s financial capacity they should be able to stock this squad with more blue-chip attacking talent.

For a team as defensive as City are under Joyce, they need to have attacking potency almost by-default, or they risk stalling out in games like this, or indeed last weekend’s game when they couldn’t seize the points late with the Mariners only barely holding on.

The matched sloped to its inevitable conclusion, and Le Fondre added another goal before the end, after nice work from De Silva, Lokoli Ngoy and Ninkovic. Le Fondre now has four goals in his first three A-League games.

Adam Le Fondre

It’s worth remembering the continuity of this Sydney team, and how that continuity helps when rolling through the fixtures. Sydney have won so many games over the last two seasons, and have seen almost every kind of counter-plan. Even the tendrils of fatigue can’t easily throw them off their game, and they were sneeringly clinical here. For City, a truly pallid home opener does not bode well for their vitality this season.