Football Season Guide

Failure to defend their title last spring made Arnold’s decision to leave his role as manager and take charge of Australia’s national team easy. As his replacement the Sky Blues appointed Steve Corica, who will be making his first steps in the A-League this year. This was not the only change though with Sydney also losing three key players from their squad over the summer. Defender Buijs, wide midfielder Mierzejewski and the A-League’s Golden Boot winner Bobo were significant departures that forced rebuilding process to begin. Fascinated by the technical abilities of the Dutch players and their cheap price-tags Sydney once again shopped in Holland extendedly. Van der Linden was signed to become the new main partner for experienced Wilkinson in the heart of the defence, plus Siem de Jong arrived on loan and he is an extremely talented inner midfielder that can also score goals and provide crucial passes in the final third. Le Fondre was signed from the English second tier to replace Bobo up front and he will have to be providing the goals if Sydney are to be successful. The new boss also added to the squad two young talents from Mariners and at least Buhagiar enjoyed excellent pre-season in his new role as a striker, with his electric speed likely to hurt many defences this season. The main right-back Grant spent pretty much the entire last season injured, but when fit he is one of the best in his role in the A-League and in general Sydney continue to have very solid squad and decent depth. That said lack of experience, just 4 players in the squad are aged 30 and over, might prove crucial in key fixtures, just as it did last season. Especially in attack Sydney are one of the many Australian teams short on numbers and putting all their hopes in the legs of just one player. If Le Fondre gets injured, he had injury issues in all of the last 4 seasons, Sydney not only lack other quality goalscorers, but the oldest replacement option Lokolingoy is just 21 and he is yet to score an A-League goal.