Football Season Guide

After having the perfect campaign last season now Sydney have to deal with the expectations weighing on them and they will find it really hard to replicate the near perfect year they enjoyed. The departure of experienced Holosko, Blackwood and Ibini-Isei saw Sydney losing all of their three options at right wing, but the bigger concern is that Holosko was a very close friend with the main centre forward Bobo and the Brazilian was reported to have expressed his anger at Arnold for allowing the Slovakian to leave. Effective and firing at all cylinders Bobo is crucial for Sydney as their only other option at centre forward is the unreliable Matt Simon. The Sky Blues have an impressive backbone all over the pitch though and practically in every other position, apart from the goalkeeper, they kept those players that performed so well last season. Brosque, Ninkovic, Carney and the newcomers Kalik and Mierzejewski will be competing for the three positions behind Bobo and at least early on it seems that Ninkovic will be moved to the right wing. Holding midfielders O’Neill and Brillante will have Retre as an alternative this season and all three of them are known for their aggressive ball-winning tackling skills. This should allow Sydney to dominate possession again. Buijs and Wilkinson remain the main figures in defence, with the former also known for being a regular set piece taker. Zullo and Grant are the full-backs, but in Ryall and Wilkshire there are options for rotation. Sydney’s season will be much harder for the simple fact that come February the Sky Blues will have to manage domestic games with Asian Champions League fixtures and as it has proven from previous years this is still hard for the Australian teams, as they have to travel very long distances practically every other day.