Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold praised his defence after their clean sheet in Saturday night’s Big Blue, but he said the Sky Blues had another 70% improvement in them.
Speaking to Fox Sports after the Sky Blues edged Victory in a tight contest, Arnold stressed his team were far from their best.
“Overall our defence was fantastic and they didn’t have a shot on goal in 90 minutes, and our performance was only about 30% of what we’re capable of.
“When you have someone like Alex Wilkinson organising the backline so well. And we had three new players at the back with Luke Wilkshire, Paolo Retre and Andrew Redmayne in goals.
“Tactically they [the new players] were superb. And Lukey set up the goal so I couldn’t be happier with the effort.
“But at the end of the day there won’t be too many teams that will come to Melbourne [Victory] and take away three points.”
Sydney remain in Melbourne with their next challenge a midweek FFA Cup semi final with South Melbourne at Lakeside.
“After 97 days of pre-season, it takes a good four weeks to settle into the rhythm and you can’t replicate games, as hard as you train, but once a competition game comes along, intensity goes up.
“But overall I thought we deserved the three points.”
