Adelaide United midfielder Kristian Sarkies says the Reds will be focusing on their own game plan rather than what their opposition will do as they prepare to host first-placed Sydney at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night.
After 10 rounds of the season, the Sky Blues sit clear on top of the Hyundai A-League table, but just seven points separates them from the seventh-placed Reds.
Sydney opened up its lead at the top after three goals in five minutes dismantled the then second-placed Melbourne Victory on their home turf.
Sarkies is fully aware of what the Sky Blues are capable of, but he is confident his side can get the right result, despite struggling with just two wins from six attempts at home.
“They scored three goals in five minutes last week so good on them, hopefully they just don’t do it against us. Defensively we’re very sound and hopefully we can score a goal … and try to win the game,” Sarkies said.
“I think it’s not so much pressure, I think it’s more disappointment that we aren’t getting the wins that last year we were getting. We’ve got to win a few more games at home which we hope to start off this week against Sydney.”
“We’re just going to stick to our game plan, work as hard as we can on that and see what comes from it.”
Scoring goals has been one area of concern for the Reds in recent times with just five strikes in the past six weeks hitting the back of the net, but Sarkies hopes to turn that around this week.
“We’ve had a lot of opportunities, a lot of crosses into the box but I think we’ve just got to get the foot on the end of the ball,” he said.
“We’re working on it at training and hopefully against Sydney this week we can bag a few.”
“Coming into the next few days we’ll focus more on it (Sydney’s formation and set up), focus on the key points of their game and stick to our game plan and see how we go.”
Meanwhile, Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka was delighted to defeat the Victory and move clear at the top of the table, but he is keeping his players in check ahead of Friday night’s clash.
“Football is unpredictable, every game is different. Melbourne is past, now (we are) focusing for Adelaide game,” he said.
“We have season target, but we (also) have individual targets during the season. Last week we reached a good target, but season is (still) going and we need to concentrate and be ready.”
“I am watching the improvement of the players, I am watching that every good result and performance brings the players more confidence, but we need to be still hard working and humble, to have unity – same pillars as we have had all season.”
