Should Sydney FC sack Steve Corica?

Even this season the new signings are not living up to expectation. Corica does not play a formation that suits the new signings. Sydney fc could play a lot better with a manager that had more experience. With Corica it is boring to watch them. Sack him!

I generally agree with a lot of the comments made here. The other thing I’d say that has worked against Corica is: 1. Sale of Adrian - very hard to replace a player who has come of one of the best ever seasons. 2. Loss of Andrew Clark to national set up - you can’t underestimate his importance to the success that Arnie had at both Mariners and Sydney FC. 3. Injuries- Sydney have been smashed with more injuries than in last few years combined. Are 2 and 3 interlinked? I’d say yes to some extent. His recruiting has been patchy with the Dutch players being underwhelming due to a combination of injuries and form. Re the last comment on fan base - I suppose you hear some accents from that part of the world but never really noticed it that much to be honest. If I had to say anything I probably hear more European accents from older gents attending with their Australian born adult children and/or grandchildren. That said the overwhelming majority of accents I hear (when paying attentional it) are Australian. That’s just my experience though.

I worry that Corica is too nice a person with too introverted a personality to ever match the sales job Arnold did recruiting overseas players. And Sydney desperately need o/s recruits for next season.

Not Sydney FC, but Kossie's moving along at Brisbane City FC, in the NPLQ. Sitting mid-table with 4 losses in the last 5 games, including an embarrassing 7-0 loss to Lions FC, City has offered Kossie a new position in Senior Football Development, yet to be defined but the job is to help work on the club's goal of joining the A League. The club also appointed as new coach, effective immediately, Nick Green. We need you Kossie, but not as coach man, not with all that time you spend away in tv land.

Agree. Corica's personality looks more suited to that of an assistant, and like Arnold did with Hiddink I suspect he's simply copying his predecessors blueprint. The problem with this is that when it isn't working you need to be able to tweak things in game. Can he?

Surely we get Jamieson too?!

Sydney are still 2nd on the table. I think they’ll find it tough to match Perth Glory, as will most other clubs. Siem has always been injury prone through out his career and Raza is still settling in. Filling in Arnold’s shoes will always be a tough gig, Sydney should at least keep him for another season.

SC has learnt nothing under Arnold, he is too boring whenever he opens his mouth on TV, SFC looses, massive cleanout is needed , players like Wikinson, Brosque, Siem Jong, Ninkovic, Anthony Caceres , Retre has to go. Six losses in 21 games is too much Arnold didn't had that much in last two seasons, wake up fans raise your voice and remove Corica and his assistant, results speaks for itself against Brisbane, CCM, and last week against MCY.

Pretty big call to make for a club which is second.

2nd on the ladder?

You can’t judge Corica too harshly, given the number of injuries and the underwhelming performances of the foreign signings (van der Linden, Ghoochannejhad and de Jong). In addition, Sydney is second and although not scoring much they have created a lot of scoring chances. And Corica’s squad looks a bit old and worn out in places - Brosque, Wilkinson, even Ninkovic at times. Despite all that, Corica’s sideline demeanour doesn’t inspire much confidence for the future. He looks introverted and hesitant and often at a loss as to what to do. A key problem Corica hasn’t solved is right midfield, usually occupied by Retre or Caceres. Both have trouble moving the ball forward, by pass or on foot. All attacking on that side entirely depends on Grant, a fullback. At least Retre and Caceres defend adequately, which can’t be said of Ivanovic, who Corica regularly subs on for them. That was a real mistake against Kawasaki. On Grant, given the injuries to forward players, I can’t see why Corica hasn’t experimented with playing Grant as right midfield. With Grant further forward he could move Brillante to right back, and Retre to Brillante’s position. Or he could simply use Calver or Tratt at right back. At least having Grant’s energy and attacking flair on the right would relieve the burden on Ninkovic and draw some attention away from him. Even trying 3 at the back, with Grant as a wingback and Ninkovic more central, might be worth a try. I guess Corica’s unwillingness to fiddle with the structure Arnold bequeathed him is the biggest criticism I would make. That was certainly a common complaint in the stands and on the long light rail trip back to Central last weekend. ‘Same old, same old...daft!’ On that point, I hadn’t noticed before just how many Sydney FC fans come from the UK or Ireland. I was surrounded by them in the stands, on the walk to the ground and on the trains. I base that solely on accents heard but would be interesting to know the demographics of the club’s fan base.

Schenkeveld, Krishna and maybe a central midfielder should be the transfer targets.

If Siem De Jong is on a marquee deal that is the definition of insanity, I would imagine though its more a deal to have him outside the salary cap, than being on big money. He was struggling to play a few minutes in Holland. The irony is whatever faults Corica has Arnold was ten times worse. Arnold had hardly any injuries and went to pieces at ACL time. Arnold during the ACL period didnt even make early subs, and zero rotation. Corica has been poor in that regard but not as bad as Arnold. Arnold is great at getting A-league teams to spend up big and give him good squads. Then he leaves the second the money dries up. Arnold failed to put on young players with pace, which is what you need at the end of games when everyone else is tired. Corica he has let the club get cheap options instead of going for the good players. Now he is letting the club sell players during the season thats a joke. The secret to Arnies success is he always looks after himself, he drove the Mariners broke and enhanced his reputation , look where they are now, whereas Corica seems to have let the club push him around.

Ernie Out, Corica In. Followed by Simon, Brosque, Wilkinson and Kruse as marquee! Nightmare stuff for Fad and the jets, but worth it!

I have been a supporter of Sydney FC from the start and seen ups and downs but ever since Arnold took over it was a breath of fresh air, not only they won trophies but played beautiful football. This year I have been very disappointed not only they losing games but very ordinary to watch. The team is slow and can't score goals. Their last 3 games they didn't score that is not a good football team.

Can start by getting Bart Schenkeveld. Oh!

"All 3 have extraordinary talent for A- eague players". Hmmmm. Ivanovic has potential but I'm yet to see reasons for such hyperbole from the other 2. I do agree it's a real shame that SFC are a dull watch. Grant is pretty much the only player with any pace in the team, and yes they are very narrow, as is the Sydney way from pretty much day one. I said pre season, and again a few weeks ago, that the jury is out on Corica. Can he stamp his own mark on the team? Can he make in game tactical changes? Sack him though? Not at this stage

Great article, and it is really well thought out, but here are a few points: -Steve Corica has been very unlucky with injuries, as what would have been their star, Trent Buhagiar injured his ACL and Chris Zuvela was ruled out with a season-long injury to do with his knee. Siem De Jong has been out for more than half the season, and he was their marquee player. There would have been pace, and we saw from the FFA cup semi-final derby how well the system was working in the second half. It is likely that no Sydney FC coach will be able to compete with Graham Arnold’s success in the last two seasons largely because they never had to deal will any major injuries. -As for the replacements, Buhagiar is a quick winger but Sydney are already looking at bringing in Krishna, so Steve Corica is probably already planning his next season with formation changes and a more direct aspect. In my opinion, Jacob Tratt could be a ball-playing centre back, but we haven’t seen enough of him but hopefully, with Ben Warland’s ACL injury we could see how good he really is in the next few weeks. -Also, Sydney has not been playing a poor brand of football at all, there were just a few games that were letting them down. -So, in conclusion, Steve Corica should not be sacked for sitting second on the table behind Perth Glory who haven’t had any major injuries to deal with and have been playing amazing football.

I would like to think that before the job was awarded to SC, there were long and serious talks relating to expectation and benchmarks and that would include what time period he would be given to,produce the results contained within his contract. If not, then the club hasn’t been thorough and the manager is foolish. Top four with the possibility of a final should be acceptable for a season following on from what has been achieved over the past two years. It also,has to be understood that there has been a coaching change, key players moving on and the club is uprooted from its home ground, all things tnat cuse instability. For me, it should be a transition year, bedding down a new regime and the judgement should all be about next year.