Markus Babbel not concerned by Wanderers’ history with Sydney FC

The Wanderers’ poor record against Sydney FC doesn’t dampen coach Markus Babbel’s confidence.

Western Sydney Wanderers coach Markus Babbel. Picture: Brett Costello

Markus Babbel doesn’t care much for statistics, so it was understandable the Western Sydney coach gave a simple shrug of the shoulders and quickly brushed aside talk around the stranglehold bitter rivals Sydney FC have on the Wanderers.

And that is some show of bravado from the German given the Wanderers have beaten the Sky Blues just once in their past 13 A-League encounters — 14 games if you count the 4-0 loss in an FFA Cup semi-final on October 6 in his introduction to the Sydney derby.

The Wanderers have managed just four wins in 18 Sydney derbies, the last in a round 20 match on February 18 last year, which means it will be 615 days since they beat the Sky Blues by the time the whistle blows to kick-off the latest derby at the Sydney Cricket Ground tomorrow night.

But the stats do nothing to dampen Babbel’s confidence.

“Something happened in the past but now it is a new situation … there is a different training team, and a couple of new faces so now the mentality changes,” Babbel said before putting his players through their paces yesterday morning.

“There is a process and we have to work on that.

“Of course, it was sad (after the loss to Sydney in the Cup). But we had a good performance, we created chances but couldn’t score.

“Then they scored with the first chance, then with the second chance and it was difficult to come back.

“You have to accept this sometimes because in a game something different always happens, set pieces, a (great) free kick.”

The fixtures for this weeks footy

What Babbel won’t accept, however, is a lack of belief. In that loss to Sydney he felt the players dropped their heads after the second goal.

“I saw faces that did not believe they [could] change the result, 2-0 with half an hour go, still time to achieve something, but there was not the belief in us.

“We have to keep going if something goes wrong.”

The Wanderers boss at least saw some of that belief return last week in the 1-1 draw with Perth Glory in their opening game of the season.

Generally second best for most of the game and regarded as fortunate to come away with a point, Western Sydney showed plenty of spirit to keep the Glory and former coach Tony Popovic at bay. “We were happy with the point because the reaction after the first half was good,” he said.

“We were not good in the first half but we had chances in the second and a bit of luck and we win this game, but Perth also had chances.”

Babbel is unlikely to alter the starting side, believing there was enough to take from the second half.

“The good thing now is I still have two days more to think about it,” he said.

“The second half was good but maybe someone in training is so good I have to bring him in. I don’t know at the moment.”

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic said he was concerned a long-standing pelvic injury could seriously jeopardise his season.

Janjetovic missed a good chunk of the pre-season with osteitis pubis and only came back into training three or four weeks ago.

“I was a little bit worried. It’s been something lingering from last year,” said Janjetovic, a man of few words.

“I knew what it was about, we just had to get the timing of it right. But it has come good.”

Still, he admits he still has to be a little careful and monitor it closely.

“I have had to modify my training load a bit here and there. But I can play with it and we see how it reacts week to week.

“I have a couple of injections. It’s all good.”