Sydney FC Head Coach Steve Corica is embracing the selection dilemmas confronting him for this Saturday’s clash against Adelaide United at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.
Forced into one change with Rhyan Grant suspended, Corica is also considering starting Anthony Caceres following a fine run of form from the midfielder, culminating in his assist for Sunday’s winner over Melbourne City.
Corica said there were no disruptions to the squad’s preparations with Grant’s suspension as he heralded the depth of his team.
“We’ve got to prepare without him [Grant] but he’s doing his stuff as normal, training hard and keep his fitness up,” Corica said.
“I think we’ve got a couple of options [at right back]. Paulo is one of them, he’s done a fantastic job at right back in the past, and we’ve got Harry Van der Saag who can play there too.
“Caceres is a good chance to start. He does a fantastic job for us coming off the bench, but he’s ready to play and done a wonderful job for us when he’s come on and created stuff,” he continued.
“I thought last week he [Caceres] was excellent, the way he performed as a number six and then as a number 10. He can play a couple of positions for us which is great and I love watching him.
“We’ve got a couple of options to weigh up and we’ll see tomorrow.”
While the squad are brimming with confidence, sitting nine points clear in first, Corica stressed his desire for more as he prepares to face an Adelaide side arriving in Sydney off the back of consecutive defeats.
“We just keep driving them to be the best we can,” Corica said.
“We are nine points clear at the moment but we want to make it more, they’re hungry to win games and I think we showed that last week in our attitude and the way we went about the game to win it with 10 men.
“We turn up every day at training to be better, that’s our main focus to win every game we play and get as many points as possible.
“I think they’re all full of confidence, the result last week showed the character that we have in the team and the discipline and structure they believe in.
“They put it into a professional attitude to win that game.
“This week is a totally different game, they’ve got to forget that week, we’ve got to prepare differently,” he continued.
“Adelaide are a very good team, they’re coming off a couple of losses which is disappointing for them so we need to be ready and focused for this game.”
Sydney FC kick off the new year with a bang at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on Saturday (kick off 7:30pm AEDT). With family tickets for $49*, bring the whole crew down to back the table toppers in a summer sizzler.
