Football Season Guide

Really slow start last season; very pedestrian and lacking in penetration. Ended the campaign strongly, and ended up making the semi-final but was out of their depth. Lost some big players in pre-season but, unlike a lot of A-League teams, they brought in a lot more quality than they lost. Numerous veterans retired/moved on - Franjic, Benat, Susaeta, Federici, Milligan, Derbyshire. Some big losses there, especially Derbyshire and Franjic. Their signings were arguably the best of any A-League team though. Juric is a good target man. De Silva and Davila are excellent playmakers. Mutch is a good midfield organiser. Kurto is a like-for-like replacement for Federici. Uskok adds steel in defence. Toure and Najjar bring life in the final third. Noone is a class act in attack, good at creating and scoring. There are no obvious weaknesses in this squad. Some slight question marks over the absence of a natural finisher, although Juric has done that in the past. Their defence will struggle with pace but better game control should prevent such. Kurto does make mistakes but so did Federici. Defence a touch zealous in challenges. Strengths - everywhere, really. They've signed some terrific match-winners especially Davila and Noone. Extremely good from set pieces. Will dominate games better when the squad settles down. Irreplaceable players - Davila, Juric, Mutch, Jovanovic.