Sydney FC coach John Kosmina wants maximum points out of Saturday’s Round 7 Hyundai A-League clash against Queensland Roar, but he knows it won’t be easy.
The Sky Blues suffered their first loss of the season against the Wellington Phoenix last start while the Roar toppled Melbourne Victory 2-0.
Speaking after his side’s final training run in scorching heat at the SFS on Friday, Kosmina made no secret of his desire to return to the winner’s circle but conceded beating Frank Farina’s men is always easier said than done.
“They’re a tough side to play against … the thing that is frightening about Queensland is there pace,” Kosmina said.
“They’ve got Massimo Murdocca and Matty McKay who are like little Eveready men in the middle of the park they just bomb around everywhere.”
“Up, down, front, back, sideways you name it, they never stop working and they’re hard to play against, they’re hard to defend against because they make runs into the box.”
While wary of the Roar, Kosmina said he would not drastically alter his tactics for the clash.
“It’s a home game for us we’ve got to do what we do and do it well,” he said.
“If you change your whole set-up to suit the opposition sometimes you could be asking for trouble.”
“We’re not going to play for a draw tomorrow night, we want to play for the win.”
Kosmina is confident his side is on track having secured three wins from their opening six fixtures to sit alongside the Victory at the top of the ladder, but repeated his recent calls for his players to be more aggressive in front of goal.
“Last week we played some decent stuff, we didn’t kill them (Wellington) off when we had the chance,” he said.
“I didn’t rip the players up this week or have a hard week, we just kept doing the same thing because for me football’s about getting the basics right.”
“We just chatted about that at the end of the session, do the good things well and do them consistently and you should get results.”
“There’s no argument about how well we’re playing at times but we need to be as I’ve said in the past a tad more positive, a bit more incisive maybe around the edge of the box.”
