Adam Le Fondre (k) (att) Mumbai City – on loan; Marco Tilio (mid) Melbourne City;
Sydney made it back-to-back titles last season and from start to finish the Sky Blues were by far the most consistent team in the league. Having both the best defence and the most effective forward line brought plenty of joy once more.
Coach Corica was forced by the owners to allow top scorer for past 2 seasons Le Fondre to leave on 1-year loan! COVID-related financial difficulties for the Russian airline owning Sydney FC led to the team’s budget being slashed and as a result the highest earner Le Fondre had to go.
Not just that but Sydney didn’t sign anyone new and only promoted several teenagers from the U21s to the first team.
Considering that Le Fondre was the only typical centre forward on the books, Corica definitely plans to use a fluid front line this season. Natural wingers Barbarouses and Buhagiar will be rotating as false nine with both of them possessing electric pace and with this making Sydney probably the only team in the A-League that would seek to play mainly on counterattack.
This would once again make the Sky Blues unique in style, but questions remain will the current group of forwards be able to replace the 15+ goals which Le Fondre’s presence pretty much guarantees.
With nobody else leaving further down the pitch, Sydney have pretty much the same group that won them 2 consecutive titles and they should continue to have one of the best defensive records.
Target
Defending their title is the goal as always, but taking the gamble not to invest in reinforcements might prevent the Sky Blues from doing so.
Season Review
2019/2020
Champions:
Sydney FC
Sydney FC defended their title without too many problems. The Sky Blues won the regular season easily after opening their campaign with 18 wins in the first 20 games (D1 L1)! Slight dip in the form was witnessed after the COVID-break, but this was mostly due to the lack of motivation and, come play-off time, Sydney kept consecutive clean sheets to cruise 2:0 past Glory in the semis and then edge Melbourne City 1:0 in the Grand Final.
All season the health of the squad was very good and apart from left-back Zullo everyone else avoided serious issues. This helped a lot with Sydney FC able to use pretty much their best line-up in more than 70% of the games.
Le Fondre’s goals, Ninkovic’s craftiness, Brattan’s rock-solid presence in midfield and the faultless centre-back pair Wilkinson-McGowan all deserve praise. In general Sydney’s main strength was their team spirit and ability to execute their game plan to perfection no matter who the opponents were.
The main weakness, if there was any, was the very young bench. Despite developing well during the campaign none of the youngsters had huge impact and as result Sydney had the third weakest contribution from their subs in the league.
Right now the outlook for next season is great, especially if as expected the majority of the regulars extend their contracts.