It may only be one win, a small step towards their journey up the Hyundai A-League ladder but Alex Brosque has no doubt the gloom has finally lifted off Sydney FC.
It may only be one win, a small step towards their journey up the Hyundai A-League ladder but Alex Brosque has no doubt the gloom has finally lifted off Sydney FC.
While there’s still plenty of hard work to be done and many more wins needed to mount a serious defence of their title, there is a sense around the camp that the Sky Blues are back.
That type of talk will be music to the ears of Sydney players and fans alike who have had to endure a shocking winless run this season never before seen in the club’s short history.
A dark cloud has hovered over the club for most of the early months of the 2010/11 campaign, a result of going 10 matches without to start the season.
It lead to talk of coach Lavicka possibly losing his job as well as criticism the team lacked sufficient leadership and backbone to turn their fortunes around.
But it’s amazing what winning football matches does and the mood at Moore Park has certainly lifted since the club’s drought-breaking 3-0 win over the Perth Glory last weekend.
While there’s no wild predictions being bandied about and no talk of finals just yet, confidence that can still make something of this season is slowly building at the club.
“Things have been a lot better and a lot happier around the place since the win,” Brosque said.
“To have finally have broken through this season and to have done it over there (in Perth) is a big morale-boost for the boys.”
“The trip to Perth is always tough and over the past couple of years I don-t think we’ve come back with three points.”
“It’s come at a good time for us, we’re at home again and we’ve generally been paying well at home but just haven’t got the results. Hopefully this week we can.”
“It’s a cliché but it doesn-t mean too much if we don-t go on with it and keep the wins coming.”
Much of the credit for that breakthrough success was put down to a raft of changes Lavicka made not only to his personnel but also tactically.
Normally reluctant to alter his starting side or alter his game plan too much, Lavicka finally lost patience with his under-performing squad, dropping four players for the trip west and re-jigging his formation.
Out went goalkeeper Liam Reddy, defender Sebastian Ryall, midfielder Stuart Musialik and striker Mark Bridge, while his preferred 4-4-2 with a diamond in midfield – which was so successful in the championship win last season – was dumped for a 4-2-3-1.
“Vitja’s always been a coach that’s kept things pretty regular and more of the same and it’s hard to argue with that,” Brosque said.
“It worked really well for us last year.”
“But I think this year the way we started we needed something just to freshen the boys up and to change things a little bit.”
“What the coach did was put everybody on notice that regardless of who you are and how good you are you can easily find yourself on the bench.”
“And it worked last week which was great.”
“But it’s a bigger test this week against a Brisbane side that have put a lot of sides to the sword this year.”
Brosque himself has been affected by the Czech coach’s change in formation, moving from his preferred central striking role to a place on the left-side of a three-man attacking set-up just behind striker Bruno Cazarine.
The switch is a little foreign for the Socceroos front man but he’s just happy to do whatever is needed to get the team back on track.
“It is different and I guess it will take a little bit of getting used to,” Brosque said.
“I found myself at times neither here nor there. It’s one that over the next few weeks if continue that way get used to bit more.”
“I enjoy it. Vitja’s (Lavicka) given me more of an attacking role and relieved me of some defensive duties.”
“It’s good to know when I get the ball I’ll be fresh to attack.”
Which is exactly what Brosque wants his team-mates to do when they take on the high-flying Brisbane Roar on Saturday night at the SFS in a genuine test of the club’s mini-revival.
“We’re at home so really we have to throw everything at Brisbane, just like we did last week (against Perth),” the 27-year-old said.
“If we can match them intensity wise I think we’ve got more than enough confidence in ourselves to go on and do the job.”
“It’s a big match. We needed to get that first one out of the way and now we need to build on that.”
But Brosque is under no illusions how difficult that task will be against a Roar side that has received plenty of accolades this season for their style of play – built on slick passing and movement off the ball.
“We have done a little bit of homework on that and watched videos of how they move off ball,” he said.
“That’s a big reason for our formation change last week.”
“In the middle of park and defensively to make sure we’ve got enough numbers and not get sucked into following players as they run around everywhere.”
“As long as we keep our shape….we’ve seen teams frustrate them before and we’re going to try and do the same thing.”
