Farina promises changes after Mariners defeat

Disappointed Sydney FC coach Frank Farina says it’s got to the point where he will have to make changes after hinting some of his players gave up in the loss to the Central Coast on Saturday night.

Disappointed Sydney FC coach Frank Farina says it’s got to the point where he will have to make changes after hinting some of his players gave up in the loss to the Central Coast on Saturday night.

The Sky Blues were second best for much of the night and produced a lacklustre performance in front of their home fans, going down 1-0 to Mile Sterjovski’s deflected second half strike.

It’s now five games without a win for Sydney and it seems Farina has had enough, threatening to wield the axe ahead of their Australia Day clash with Melbourne Victory.

The Sky Blues boss said he expected more from all his squad, accusing some of his players of throwing in the towel after going behind just before the hour mark.

“I expected a better reaction after the goal and if I’m not going to get that then I’ll try players that hopefully will,” a furious Farina said.

“I’m not going to go into individuals but I was disappointed with the reaction after (the Mariners goal).

“We’ve shown since the time I’ve been here that we’ll fight until the end but I don’t think we did that as well as we could.

“Tonight was a good opportunity to jump back in (the top six) and we didn’t do it and some of the performances weren’t as good as I expected…so if we have to change we’ll change.

“It’s about winning games of football and getting points. I’m not happy with that tonight.”

Farina could hardly argue with the result as the Mariners squandered a host of first half chances to put the game to bed long before Sterjovski’s fortunate strike.

Making things harder for the Sky Blues was the lack of impact from talisman Alessandro Del Piero, who is struggling to produce the type of form that lit up the A-League last season.

Asked if he was getting enough out of the veteran Italian, a coy Farina said: “It’s hard in games like this when it’s a grind.

“They (Mariners) close people down well…I want more input from all my players.

“I expect more from all of them, not naming individuals.”

And Farina says he needs to get much more from his side, especially in attack, if they are to turn things around against the Victory.

“I’ve said it for the last few weeks but we need to fix our execution in the final third. That’s two games we haven’t scored,” the Sky Blues boss said.

“You’re not going to win football games if you don’t score goals so the final third is an area we have to get better in.

“We created some chances tonight but didn’t finish for whatever reason so it’s probably the main area we need to improve in.

“We’re certainly going to have to cut the basic errors out. Poor passing, poor control if you minimise those errors you will have a lot more of the ball and that’s when you can score goals.”