His team have secured three wins to start the A-League Women season but Sydney FC coach Ante Juric says he’s still not satisfied with their opening to the campaign.
The Sky Blues remain undefeated following victories over Newcastle, Western Sydney and Wellington, with their frontline of Princess Ibini, Cortnee Vine and Remy Siemsen proving difficult to stop.
At the other end of the field, Juric’s side have conceded just one goal but he is yet to witness a complete performance.
“I’m happy we’ve got three wins,” he told AAP ahead of Monday’s clash with the Wanderers at Leichhardt Oval.
“We haven’t played super well and our fluency hasn’t been great, but we’ve been able to blow teams away with our work rate.
“We pride ourselves on having a solid defence and it starts with Prinnie, Cortnee and Remy up top because they run like nuts.
“I speak to the girls and I hope this doesn’t sound too arrogant, but we want to prepare as if we’re playing a grand final.
“We’re not playing in it now, so we can make mistakes and get used to each other, but when we get closer to the finals we need to be ready.”
The last time the two sides met a condensed Western Sydney defence meant both teams struggled to create any rhythm in the final third with Siemsen’s double proving the difference.
Juric felt his team were needlessly dragged into a scrappy fight with Catherine Cannuli’s side in the midfield, and will seek to play with greater urgency to stretch the Wanderers’ defence.
“I think that this time we’ve got to play a bit wider and quicker,” he added.
“They work behind the ball which makes things compact. Because we weren’t as fluent, we tended to rush our passes or give a bad pass and we’ve been trying to work on that.
“It’s not just been against the Wanderers, it’s happening in all the other games.
“We’ve been making our own issues when we’ve been in possession.”