Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka has promised a return to a more intricate style of football against Wellington Phoenix at the SFS on Sunday following last week’s long-ball barrage.
The Sky Blues struggled to penetrate Central Coast Mariners through the midfield and resorted to the long ball far too frequently for the Czech mentor’s liking on the way to a 0-0 draw.
But Lavicka is confident his men can turn things around immediately against the fourth-placed Phoenix.
“We’ve analysed it during this week and we are going to play different than last week in Gosford,” Lavicka said on Friday.
“They (Central Coast) have strong players but we our players need to recognise when to use the long ball and when to use the short-pass combination.”
“We spoke about it and I believe, and we believe, we will do it better next time.”
Slovakian international and central midfielder Karol Kisel echoed his coach’s sentiments, labelling last week’s lapse a one-off.
“We need to improve in this and I think we will improve,” he said of his side’s fascination with the long ball last weekend.
“We need to play more short balls but I think that was just an exception of this game.”
While his team his well placed in second spot through three rounds of the Hyundai A-League season, Lavicka concedes his new side remains a work in progress.
“We’re learning every time, every session every game but this is a never ending process,” he said.
“This is professional football we know we need things to improve.”
“We need still to reinforce the good habits and we need to improve especially in defence, make it better the co-operation and the cover and man-to-man marking, and in attack try to play more direct.”
“I know that it’s easy to say and hard to do it on the pitch, I was a player as well but I appreciate the attitude of all players from our team and their desire to learn and to be better.”
Asked what he is expecting from the Phoenix this weekend, Lavicka warned his charges to brace for a difficult assignment against Ricki Herbert’s men.
“They are a very tough team … against Brisbane last week the second half especially they played very tough and scored,” he said.
“They played a similar style against Newcastle, they lost but they were losing 2-0 and equalised at 2-2, so they’re a very tough and dangerous team.”
