Melbourne Heart striker John Aloisi has urged Sydney FC fans to be patient with struggling midfielder Nicky Carle, backing the club’s current marquee man to rediscover his best form and become a dominant player in the Hyundai A-League again.
Carle has endured a miserable debut season with the Sky Blues, playing just six of the club’s 20 games in an injury-disrupted campaign.
Sydney fans have been left frustrated as the 29-year-old has failed to expectations since his big-money signing with toe, hamstring and back injuries hampering his contribution on the field.
It’s a situation Aloisi knows all too well about, suffering a similar fate in his first season in the harbour city in 2008/09 when brought to the club on a lucrative deal worth more than $1million a season.
After struggling to make an immediate impact at the SFS, the former Socceroos striker copped a lot of flak from the Sydney FC fans in his first season, before turning things around in his second year and playing a major role in the club’s double championship-winning success.
And Aloisi has no doubt Carle can do something similar, confident he has the ability work through this tough period and come out the other side better than ever.
“He’s (Carle) a great professional and I’ve heard from the boys that he’s working really hard and that he wants to do well and that’s the main thing,” Aloisi said ahead his first visit back to his old club with the Heart on Thursday night.
“If he wants to do well I’m sure he will because he’s got the talent. Who knows next year he could be the best player in the league again.”
“Everyone knows what he’s capable of doing, he just needs to focus on that and not listen to people talking negative about him.”
“People will because that’s just the nature of the game but he needs to make sure he has a good pre-season and has a good year next year.”
Like Carle, Aloisi was troubled by injury is his first season with Sydney which made it difficult to produce the performances the fans expected.
“I had a (pre-season) operation the year I did come and I wasn’t fully fit but as soon as you set foot on the pitch people don’t care about that,” Aloisi said.
“People want to see you perform. I didn’t and I got criticised for it but that’s part of the game.”
“I just had to make sure I focused on working hard and training well and eventually things will turn around. They did the next year and I was part of a winning team.”
“Sometimes all it takes is a goal or the team to play really well and you to be involved in that team.”
“I’m sure once they start to win games again you’ll see Nicky Carle shining here again.”
Carle admitted on Wednesday he was taking some comfort from the way Aloisi was able to keep his head up and then turn his fortunes around in his second season in Sydney.
But worrying about season two now would indicate Sydney have given up hope of making an impact this season and Carle said that simply isn’t the case.
“To think we haven’t had our best season and we’re still in with a chance gives you hope and I feel we’ve got the backroom staff and the players that if we do get it right we can be a real threat,” he said.
“I’m just hoping we do get it right sooner rather than later.”
“Everyone knows this (Heart match) is a very important game for us, we’ve all prepared well for it and hope we can get the right result because this can determine our season.”
The clash is equally important for the Heart, who are just one point outside the top six but have played more games (22) than all the other teams battling with them for a place in the finals.
Asked what type of reception ex-Sydney players Simon Colosimo, Clint Bolton and himself expected from their old fans, Aloisi said: “I’m sure it won’t be the best response but it’s up to the fans what they want to do.”
“I think the old Sydney FC players played their heart out for the club, we won the double last year and we’re proud of that.”
“We just want to do well for our new team. If they want to give is a good response that’s good, if not we’ll get on with our job.”
