Sydney FC Head Coach Ufuk Talay has hinted at a new central defender signing at Thursday’s press conference ahead of Saturday night’s clash with Adelaide.
After the loss of Hayden Matthews to Portsmouth, the Sky Blues are looking to strengthen their defence and with the transfer window open until the 12th of February Ufuk Talay is hoping to secure the signature of a central defender sooner rather than later.
“For me, we want to bring someone with experience.
“[The player we’re looking at,] he’s a good leader, and he’s left footed too and I think we need a left sided central defender,” Talay said.
“Hopefully all goes well and things are sorted tomorrow, he won’t be available for the game this Saturday but hopefully the game next week.””
Alexandar Popovic’s contract also runs out on 31st January and Talay revealed that they are close to finalising a deal for him.
“Popovic is very close at the moment.
“It’s just been going back and forth the last couple of days, but we’re hoping that it’ll get done today or tomorrow.”
Douglas Costa’s hamstring injury has seen him sidelined for the entirety of January and the Head Coach revealed that he could be featuring this weekend against Adelaide United.
“Douglas is still not 100%, but we’ll see whether we utilise him this weekend and put him on the bench,” he said.
“Hopefully have him available for the Wanderers game next weekend.
“We need to win our home games. For us every game is as important as the next one.
“We know where we want to be and how we need to get there as well but it is about taking it game by game without looking too far forward and to start, focus on getting all three points against Adelaide.”
