Difficult Roads Ahead

The three points earned on Friday night sends the Sky Blues 11 points clear atop the A-League table with a game-in-hand over closest rivals Melbourne City, who will meet Perth Glory at the same venue tomorrow night.

Visits to Jubilee Stadium by Brisbane Roar and the struggling Western Sydney Wanderers will follow in the coming weeks before they commence their Asian Champions League campaign against the winner of a Tuesday-night play-off between Chinese side Shanghai SIPG and Thai club Buriram United on February 12.

Though the load-management challenges of juggling an ACL campaign and the A-League season are a danger, Sydney should be expected to take six points from Roar and Wanderers out of those fixtures to maintain their double-digit lead on the table.

The extra breathing room should allow them to pour all of their focus into what awaits them on February 19 – a mouth-watering clash between the defending A-League champions and Ange Postecoglou’s Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan.

"When that starts we'll address that," Corica "But I think in the A-League we want to keep improving. As you can see by the boys they're very hungry to win games and work hard for each other. There's a great bond between these boys. 

"It's a very good league, the ACL. It's a good competition and it's exciting for the players to be involved in that. 

"We failed in that last season. I thought we played extremely well in the ACL for little reward so obviously the aim is to go better and make it through to the next round. 

Conversely, Victory’s next trip to the Land of the Rising Sun is set to arrive a lot sooner; Salvachúa’s group travelling to face Kashima Antlers on Tuesday night. It will get no easier on their return, set to face Perth Glory next Saturday night. 

Andrew Nabbout

It’s no secret that Nabbout is in the midst of a form slump right now.

While he has scored three times in 2019/20, including against Newcastle just three weeks ago, he has consistently found himself in positions where he should have scored many, many more.  

His struggles against Adelaide, where he failed to net on a number of chances that would of brought his side level, brought him in for significant stick by the Victory faithful and his profligacy then continued against Bali United on Tuesday.

On Friday night, the 27-year-old was able to repeatedly hustle and bustle his way forward and on a number of occasions was able to break containment.

However, his final touch was consistently lacking

The pushing and shove that broke out between himself and a number of Sydney players in the wake of the double red card were revealing of the frustration that Nabbout must be feeling, as the high expectations that followed him back to Melbourne were left unmet in yet another game.

He is clearly a player that is capable of getting into excellent positions on the pitch through the use of his excellent physical attributes. In almost every game that he plays, he is going to be one of, if not the, fastest and strongest players out there.

However, unless he is able to start demonstrating that he has the touch to capitalise on the spaces that he finds himself in, and find his shooting boots, the questions over what exactly his role in Victory’s high-powered is will continue to grow.