Max Burgess urged Sydney FC to stand up and respond to their poor start to the Isuzu UTE A-League season when they face Newcastle Jets.
Sydney sit 11th in the standings after five losses, one draw and just three wins ahead of the New Year’s Day trip to Newcastle on Sunday.
The Sky Blues’ 3-0 loss to Macarthur FC proved a low point of their season and cranked up the pressure on long-time head coach Steve Corica.
Burgess said the trip to McDonald Jones Stadium was the perfect opportunity to hit back.
“For us this week it’s been us reflecting on ourselves,” Burgess told Sydney FC’s website.
“We need to respond. Good teams respond to challenges and that’s what we’ve got to do on Sunday.”
The Sky Blues regain Burgess from concussion, Jack Rodwell from injury and Luke Brattan from suspension against Newcastle, but Joe Lolley is serving a two-match ban for his red-card challenge on Daniel De Silva.
Burgess believed there was plenty of improvement left in the tank at Sydney.
“We’ve had a look internally, things we can get better at and there’s a bit there,” he said.
“So there’s the tactical side of it but also just the individual side. I think all of us know that we can do better, we expect that from ourselves.
“When there’s adversity and challenges, good teams stand up to that and that’s the team that we want to be, it’s the team that we talked about being at the start of the year and it’s about putting that into action on Sunday.
“We need to first and foremost bring everything we’ve got and leave it out there on the field and we’ll do that on Sunday.”
Newcastle, who sit seventh with four wins and five losses, will be keen to kick on from their 1-0 win over Adelaide United.
But they will be without Matthew Jurman and Brandon O’Neill.
