Fresh from thumping their cross-town rivals five nil, Sydney FC Head Coach Graham Arnold has called for an even greater performance from his Sky Blues against Melbourne City at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.
The Sky Blues’ boss said the weaknesses in City’s game were there to exploit, and having worked on his squad’s execution this week, Arnold said he expects nothing less than three points at ‘Fortress Allianz’ and another step towards his team’s first goal of the 2017/18 season.
“Our first goal is to get to 50 points as soon as possible,” Arnold said.
“Round 11 at Fortress Allianz which is a fantastic stadium for us, it’s where we feel at home, where we have the best fans in the country in The Cove and families that come, we expect to win tomorrow night at our ground.
“I analysed them [City] for their weaknesses and I’ve seen quite a few that I expect to expose tomorrow night.
“I know that when we prepare properly and that the subconscious mind is clear, that when that happens we expect to beat everyone. I think tomorrow night will be our greatest performance of the season.
“I expect a greater performance this week than what we gave against the Wanderers,” he continued.
“The players are in fantastic mental shape at the moment, the messages for tomorrow night a very very clear and that’s a greater performance than what we gave last week.
“I’m really eager to see eventually where this team finishes at in terms of quality.
“Even last week against the Wanderers we won by five but we should have won by 10 and I do believe execution is the most important thing for us at the moment and I do believe we’ll execute at our greatest tomorrow and when that happens this team is frightening.”
Arnold confirmed 2016/17 Johnny Warren Medal winner Milos Ninkovic would return to the squad for Friday night’s clash, while he also gave an update on Rhyan Grant’s recovery from an ACL injury in the pre-season.
“Ninkovic is back,” Arnold stated.
“He’s in the squad tomorrow night, he’s worked hard to get back and he’s got to fight for a place to get back in the starting 11 because the starting 11 are doing fantastic.
“You reward people because of their performances so Ninkovic is an outstanding player but it shows you the quality of the squad that we’ve got that he may have to start on the bench.
“We’re looking forward to Rhyan returning for the Finals Series, that’s the expectation he’s working extremely hard,” Arnold added.
“He hasn’t put on any weight, he’s training every day, he’s doing a lot of football work.”
Sydney FC return to Allianz Stadium on Friday night for a Westfield W-League Hyundai A-League double header. The Sky Blues’ women face Canberra United (kick off 5:20pm AEDT) before attention turns to the men and their clash against Melbourne City (kick off 7:50pm AEDT). Follow @SydneyFC on Twitter for updates.
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