A-League: Graham Arnold warns Sydney FC have room to improve
Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold has warned his side is still only operating at 60 per cent of their maximum capacity.
They are on top of the table and unbeaten after the opening five rounds of the season, but Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold has warned his side is still only operating at 60 per cent of their maximum capacity.
To back up his point, Arnold revealed every player in the Sky Blues squad believes they can do even better as the season progresses.
“I walked into the dressing rooms on Monday morning before training and I put the question to the players ‘is there anyone here who believes they are performing to the best of their ability as an individual?’ and not one player put up his hand,” Arnold said. “So, for me, that shows they know there is still a lot of improvement in them as individuals and in the team.”
Arnold is adamant the A-League hasn’t yet seen the best of his team. “The way we want to play, we need to be extremely fit. We are getting fitter and fitter every week,” he said as the side prepared for tomorrow’s match against Perth Glory at Allianz Stadium.
“I think we are the fittest team in the league, we run teams off their legs and have done so for the first five weeks.
“Once we get fitter we will evolve even more as a team, especially when we are in possession. Overall, I think we are only at 60 per cent of where we will end up, and that is exciting.”
Arnold also believes his players have the mental toughness to cope with being the hunted rather than the hunter following their outstanding start to the season.
“No, the pressure won’t affect them,” he said. “The thing is, I have been driving into the players that this means nothing. It is only five games into the season and there are another 22 to go.
“The main thing is we train hard every day and get better and better. We just want to perform better and better in matches.
“To be honest, I was not happy with our effort overall last week (in the 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory). Our great character, our mental toughness and our fitness got us over the line, not our football and we need to improve that.”
Arnold will have some headaches to sort out when he picks his starting line-up against a quality Perth side who have lost only once in five games this season.
In particular, David Carney is knocking on the door to be reinstated after coming off the bench last week and scoring two goals against Victory to turn the game.
“It’s a good situation to be in,” Arnold said. “I have always said I wanted two players for every position so that there is competition for places in the starting side.
“Any one of 17 players could be in the line-up. Actually, any one of the 17 players could make it in any of the other A-League sides. In the end, I make the decisions about who plays. Carney missed last week, but before that our captain Alex Brosque had to play from the bench for a couple of games.
“The players know the situation. We spoke about it during pre-season. They accept we have many quality players and great depth. Everyone is working for the club and the team. We all want to win games, win silverware.”
Perth will come to Sydney confident they can break the Sky Blues’ unbeaten run and Arnold knows the threats they pose.
“They are a very good team, (coach) Kenny Lowe has done a great job,” he said.
“They have some great players in attack — (Diego) Castro, (Andy) Keogh, (Chris) Harold, Nebo (Markinkovic). We have to starve them of the ball.”
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