Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold told his players to stop reading newspapers and get off social media in light of last round’s Sydney derby loss to Western Sydney Wanderers.
The Sky Blues bounced back from their opening loss of the 2016/17 A-League season with an emphatic 3-1 win over 10-man Melbourne City at AAMI Park on Friday night.
“One of the things I had a good chat to the boys about is to not read the media and get off social media for at least this week because it’s mostly negative,” Arnold told Fox Sports.
“I thought as the players did, we drove it very firmly on Tuesday, that our performance was very good.
“For some reason things didn’t go our way in the derby and we didn’t get some of the decisions we probably deserved.
“But if you analyse the performance side of it, it was very good. We drove that the whole week.
“We knew it’d be a tough game down here against Melbourne City and we’re very happy with the outcome.”
The boys celebrate with the travelling fans post match! Thanks for all the support!! #SydneyIsSkyBlue #MCYvSYD pic.twitter.com/Uym2V62EwM
— Sydney FC (@SydneyFC) February 24, 2017
Arnold also hailed the achievement of his side reaching 50 points in the regular season.
It’s the fifth time in six full seasons that Arnold has achieved that milestone in the A-League, coaching both Sydney and Central Coast.
However, the Sky Blues pointed to a greater history-making goal.
“I always set myself a goal at the start of the season of 50 points,” he said.
“I think that’s five years out of six now. If you get 50 you normally get top two.
“The fact we’ve already reached that with six games to go is an outstanding performance.
“But we want that record, that history and that’s 58 points.”
The Sydney boss also offered up praise for Brazilian marquee Bobo who netted a double against City and said he expected more goals from him.
“I think he’s been outstanding all year,” Arnold said.
“A lot of the issues have been that he hasn’t scored more goals. That’s been more around us than him.
“He keeps making those little runs that he scored with tonight. We haven’t connected with him before for him to finish off.
“We’re now getting used to him and I expect he’ll get more and more goals over the next six to seven weeks.
“He’s been fantastic for us. He’s a fantastic person. He works hard for the team, he buys into everything that the team is doing and I couldn’t be happier for him.”
3 points is the best way to get back on track. Solid away win Next up is the #BigBlue next Friday night. @AllianzStadium #SydneyIsSkyBlue 😄⚽
— Tony Pignata (@tpignata9) February 24, 2017
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