Sydney FC are battling to bolster their squad before the end of the transfer window, as they deal with injuries, international call-ups, a goal drought and a hectic schedule.
Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Perth in the A-League Men rounded off a period of three home games in eight days without a win, following a draw with Brisbane and being eliminated from the FFA Cup by Central Coast.
Things aren’t about to get any easier for the Sky Blues, who must turn around quickly for a Tuesday showdown at league leaders Melbourne Victory, their fifth game inside two weeks.
With experienced forwards Adam Le Fondre and Kosta Barbarouses injured and fellow strikers Bobo and Trent Buhagiar having scored just one league goal between them this season, Sydney are struggling to muster enough goals to win games.
Corica hoped to have Barbarouses and Le Fondre back in the next two weeks, but he will now lose three key defenders to the Socceroos squad.
Goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne and full backs Rhyan Grant and uncapped Joel King have been called into the squad for the vital World Cup qualifiers against Vietnam and Oman.
“It hasn’t been a great week and we’ve got another tough game in three days time,” Corica said.
“We’ve got three in the national team as well as a couple of injuries so it’s going too be very tough to go to Melbourne and win, but we will put out the best side available.”
While Sydney added Socceroos midfielder Mustafa Amini to their squad at the start of the January transfer window, their search for further reinforcements has come up empty.
“We have been looking for quite a while now,” Corica said.
“We brought Musty (Amini) early on in the window and we have been looking since then, but at the moment we haven’t found anyone.”
Corica pinpointed the recent lack of goals as their biggest issue with just two scored in their four January games – and one of those was a penalty.
“We need to find that touch, that final pass the little bit of composure in front of goal to score more,” Corica said.
“We’ve created more chances than other teams that we’ve played, we’ve dominated most games.
“For me its the final third stuff that’s lacking and that’s costing us at the moment.”
