Vidosic, who will wear the number 10 shirt this season, said competition for spots at City is strong, but that was only a good thing.

The ex-Nurnberg man will battle with new recruits Riley McGree, Lachlan Wales and Michael O’Halloran for a start in the attacking midfield role.

“That’s something which is good for the coaches to have,” he said. “For players, it’s good to have others breathing down our necks. Everyone wants those starting positions.

“That’s what the pre-season is for. It’s a long pre-season in Australia so everyone gets the chance to press their claims.

“Everyone is now giving the boss a big headache for selection and all successful teams have that.”

Semi-final pain: Vidosic says revenge isn't a factor

City won 1-0 away to Brisbane Roar in their FFA Cup Round of 32 match, but their next encounter on Wednesday pits them against the Jets, who knocked them out of last year’s finals.

“I don’t think about revenge,” Vidosic said. “That was what it was last year.

“Credit to them, they performed better than us on that night. We’ve looked back on that before and we’ve seen what we did wrong.

“It happens to be Newcastle who are coming. It’s a great challenge, another A-League team who happens to be the one who knocked us out last season.”

Vidosic acknowledged beating Newcastle would be a good yardstick for where City are at in pre-season, although they had taken confidence from the win against Roar.

“To beat any A-League team, you gain confidence,” he said.

“When we won away in Brisbane, who we were a month behind in training, we were able to match them for 120 minutes, so we gained a lot of confidence from that.

“It’s a compliment to our training standards.”