City lock horns with Sydney FC at ANZ Stadium on Friday night in their second meeting this season following last week's FFA Cup Final.

Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi openly criticised City for being an over-physical team against the Sky Blues which they continued to demonstrate against the Roar on Saturday.

The Dutchman said his side would continue to maintain the aggression in a fair manner.

“It’s football, not futsal, you’re going to make… it’s body contact, sometimes a challenge where two players go for a ball and on the high level and high speed, if you’re a bit late it could look worse than it actually is,” Van’t Schip said.

“It’s about wanting to be aggressive when we have the ball by playing attacking football in the right way and in keeping the ball and creating a lot of chances.

“When we don’t have the ball it’s about being aggressive in winning the ball back again and that’s not said we have to kick opponents and get bookings, no, we want to get the ball back. We started already with last year and we’re improving it to a high level this year.”

City will welcome back Ivan Franjic who was rested against the Roar with Tim Cahill deemed fully match fit.

Osama Malik was ruled out with a quad injury.

Van’t Schip said he took confidence in the FFA Cup glory in facing a Sky Blues outfit which remain undefeated in the A-League and sit atop of the A-League table.

“We were aggressive, equally… maybe better in the battle in challenging, so we can do that… we’ve shown as a team we can fight and beat any opponent equally in that aspect,” he said.

“They’ve been more consistent, we want to challenge them and after a result which may not go our way, the league is still long.

“We want to just keep on working, improving and getting better and of course would help a lot. We think we can do a lot better than the final and they’ll probably say the same.”