They may have spluttered to a draw against Western United but Sydney FC’s defence is struggling to function and Steve Corica concedes they need to fix it urgently if the Sky Blues are to play finals.
A late strike from Robert Mak earned Sydney a point in Saturday’s 3-3 encounter at Allianz Stadium before a trip to face high-flying Adelaide next week.
But it was the manner of how Sydney conceded their first two goals which will have the likes of Craig Goodwin and Nestory Irankunda licking their lips.
Conceding goals which evoked memories of last month’s 4-0 derby thrashing at the hands of Western Sydney, the Sky Blues were caught too high with their defence unable to recover when balls were played in behind.
Sydney are clinging onto the last finals spot in sixth by just a point and Corica admitted his side needed to get things together quickly.
“We got caught too high and a ball in behind caught us twice,” said Corica, whose side have kept just one clean sheet in their last six games.
“It’s not on really, we shouldn’t be caught that high in the first place.
“They have got good speed up top and both (our) fullbacks got caught forward which they shouldn’t be and it’s a problem that we need to fix.”
Western boss John Aloisi said Sydney’s desire to push forward left them vulnerable.
Their centre-back pairing of Alex Wilkinson and Jack Rodwell have been exploited on the counter attack but Corica said he was confident they could stand up to an Adelaide side who have scored 21 goals in their last six games.
“Adelaide is a tough place to go to but we’ve had good results there in previous years,” he said.
“We go there confident against a very good side that we know they are, so we need to play well to pick up points down there.
“Everyone’s chasing so you have to be switched on for the whole 90 minutes and mistakes are dangerous if you make too many.”
