Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold has warned the rest of the Hyundai A-League that the Sky Blues haven’t reached 100 per cent yet this season.
Arnold’s side will be aiming to equal the Hyundai A-League record for most wins to start a campaign when they visit Brisbane Roar on Saturday night, with Sydney having won their opening six matches of 2016/17.
But despite the Sky Blues’ perfect start to the season, Arnold insists there is plenty of improvement to come from the runaway leaders.
“We’re still operating at about 60, 65 per cent of where we’ll end up,” he said on Thursday.
Arnold added: “It’s only the start. Records and that don’t really interest me. It’s about getting better with every performance.
“What I’m really happy about at the moment is the belief within the squad. There’s a lot of belief and when there’s a lot of belief then the players take over, take a lot of ownership in what we’re doing… and you can see they’re a happy group but they’re a very motivated group as well.”
Sydney FC will enter Round 7 with a six-point lead at the top of the table, with third-placed Brisbane (11 points) seven points behind Arnold’s men.
Arnold rates Roar highly but argued Sydney “expect to win” at Suncorp Stadium.
“From what I’ve seen, we’re the fittest team in the country by a fair bit and the stats clearly show that we’re scoring a lot of goals in the last 15 minutes of games and running over the top of teams,” he said.
While Brisbane defender Jade North claimed on Wednesday that Sydney have been “quite lucky” so far this season, Arnold pointed to statistics on a number of occasions at Thursday’s press conference as proof of his team’s A-League dominance.
Sydney lead the league for goals scored (17), goals conceded (2), total shots (88), shots faced (47) and clean sheets (4).
