Despite having some players landing in the country a couple days prior after international duty, Sydney FC Head Coach Ufuk Talay was really pleased with his side’s effort on Saturday night.
“I am very pleased with the outcome. The second half was a very good performance from us, even the first half went quite well. We just didn’t create enough moments to find that goal, but the second half was a lot better,” Talay said.
Joe Lolley was the star player of the match, racking in two of the three goals against the Victorians and the Head Coach heralded his praises.
“Joe is a very important and influential player for us. We knew that the way that (Melbourne) Victory was set up, with Davidson going high, we would just find spaces, especially in transition, where Joey plays, we exploited that well and he scored two cracking goals from it.
“When we set up a team, we always put the players where they can use their best attributes, and we want to get Joey on the ball because we know in one-v-one situations he will be positive, or take players on, score goals and create moments.”
Despite Victor Campuzano missing a one on one chance to add a fourth on the night, Talay was quick to demonstrate his outputs elsewhere on the pitch.
“I think if you look at what Victor gives us with the ball and the energy and the amount of work rates him in that front line, that definitely helps the group and makes Rhys’ and Pauly’s job in the mid-field a bit easier.
“He has been immense in the spaces that he gets, and the players that he brings in to the game and it would be great if we could get him to score goals just for him personally,” Talay added.
