Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka has refused to declare skipper Steve Corica a certain starter ahead of Sunday’s intriguing Hyundai A-League clash against Adelaide United.
Corica, who was forced to start from the bench in his side’s 3-2 victory over North Queensland Fury after suffering back soreness in the lead-up to the match, declared himself fully fit before hitting the training pitch on Friday.
The 36-year-old ran with the starting line-up in the early part of an intense session at the Sydney Football Stadium replacing young gun Brendan Gan.
But while a cautious Lavicka confirmed the 36-year-old would be considered for first-team selection, he would not be drawn on the final make-up of his side.
“Today is Friday, we have still a couple of days before the game but Stevie is ready to play for the starting line-up (but) he respects all the decisions of the coaching staff,” a coy Lavicka said.
With every member of his playing roster available for selection, the Czech national faces a difficult task of narrowing down his final squad of 15.
“Every player is ready to play, it’s very important for me and for the coaching staff. It’s hard to decide the starting line-up but is good for me,” he said.
Despite their impressive start to the campaign against the Fury, Lavicka called for significant improvements against the Reds.
“Three points from Townsville is very important for us, it’s a good start but we need still many things to improve,” he said.
“Part of the game we played very well especially from the start the first 20 minutes over there, but in other parts of the game we were under pressure for the opposing team and we made some mistakes.”
“We did analyse the game and I hope we are ready to improve next game.”
And the Sky Blues will need to lift against an Adelaide United line-up Lavicka rates as among the most dangerous in the competition.
“We have respect for the Adelaide team, we have seen their first game against Perth at home and they played very well,” Lavicka said.
“They’re compact and they have a progressing coach as so we expect a tough match on Sunday.”
