Central Coast Mariners coach Phil Moss says Sydney FC’s poor form counts for little ahead of his team’s visit to Allianz Stadium in the A-League on Saturday.
Central Coast Mariners coach Phil Moss says Sydney FC’s poor form counts for little ahead of his team’s visit to Allianz Stadium in the A-League on Saturday.
Reigning champions Central Coast are unbeaten in three outings but have been held in each of their last two matches, drawing 0-0 at home to Melbourne Heart and 1-1 away to Wellington Phoenix.
Sydney meanwhile have not won in four games, a sequence of results that included a painful 1-0 derby loss at Western Sydney and a chastening 5-2 defeat at home to Brisbane Roar.
But despite Frank Farina’s team appearing ripe for the taking, Moss claimed the Mariners will be focusing only on producing a strong performance, without getting distracted by their opponents’ struggles.
“I honestly don’t look too deeply into their form,” he said.
“Sydney can be good one week, and not so the next.
“At the end of the day we know what we have to do. We’ll take the game plan to Allianz and it’s about executing it, and in this league as you see week in, week out, the teams that can execute their game plan for 90 percent of the match ultimately win the game.”
Central Coast will be without John Hutchinson after the club captain picked up a fifth yellow card at Westpac Stadium last week, but his coach backed other players to step up and do well, with Anthony Caceres a likely candidate to come into the starting XI.
“John Hutchinson is suspended, but obviously we have some depth in those areas to cover Hutch’s loss for this week,” Moss said.
“He’s our captain and one of our on-field leaders so we need other players to step up in that role and lead us in what is a difficult venue to go to.
“We go down there with confidence and whoever takes to the field on the weekend will do a good job.”