Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka it seems has finally lost patience with his under-performing team vowing he will make a number of changes to his side for Sunday’s away clash with Perth Glory.
Still winless after 10 matches this season, Lavicka is expected to re-shape his team for the Glory clash in the hope of shaking the defending champions into action.
While reluctant to disclose his ideas with the media on Thursday, the Sydney boss confirmed he would be changing things up this weekend both in personnel and tactics.
And he has a few more options at his disposal now with exciting youngsters Rhyan Grant, Kofi Danning, Terry Antonis and Dimitri Petratos all back and in the squad after helping the Young Socceroos make the final of the AFC under 19 championships.
While Lavicka has always been confident his leading players would click into gear and help turn the side’s fortunes around, it seems last weekend’s 3-0 thumping at the hands of the Victory was the final straw.
“After the last game in Melbourne, we’re going to do some changes,” Lavicka said.
“We have a few more options now in this moment.”
“I can’t say firstly to (the media) what changes; I would like to first tell the players.”
“We have a tactics session today, we will discuss it, try some things on the park and make final decisions.”
“We would like to change something, not only personnel but maybe we change more.”
“We’re trying to do anything we can. We all believe that we’ll make the first win and we will do good performance over there in Perth.”
There has been a perception in the past that the Czech coach is reluctant to use the younger players in his team, opting for experience to get the job done.
“That’s not true, we actually made the squad younger (this season),” Lavicka said.
“Players like Kofi (Danning), Rhyan Grant, Scott Jamieson and Sebastian Ryall they have all played.”
“Now we’re in situation that’s not easy for us but we can put on the park the best players that we have.”
Grant and Danning are two of the returning quartet that are in line for some action against the Glory.
After experiencing the high of World Cup qualification with the Young Socceroos and making it all the way to the final, Grant believes the confidence gained from that trip could help at Sydney.
“We’re coming back from a winning team with a bit of confidence in the boys and think it might just give us and the (Sydney) team confidence,” he said.
“We haven’t been here for a while and some of the boys might be happy to see us.”
“We’ll have a bit of a laugh and hopefully put the winning mentality into the team.”
Sydney is sweating on the fitness of skipper Terry McFlynn for Sunday’s game, with the hard-working midfielder struggling with a calf injury.
McFlynn trained away from his team-mates on Thursday and will need to complete Saturday’s final session to take his place in the side.
While the Sky Blues have had a wretched season so far, the Glory have problems of their own having lost five games on the trot and have had turmoil in the coaching ranks over the last two weeks. But Lavicka is wary of the wounded Glory.
“Away to Perth is always a difficult game, you have a long flight over there and they are dangerous, especially at home,” he said.
“They have very quick starts, and try to beat their opponent early in the game, we can expect a very tough game for us.”
“We are under pressure but the players and everyone is sticking together and working hard.”
