Sydney FC defended their title without too many problems. The Sky Blues won the regular season easily after opening their campaign with 18 wins in the first 20 games (D1 L1)! Slight dip in the form was witnessed after the COVID-break, but this was mostly due to the lack of motivation and, come play-off time, Sydney kept consecutive clean sheets to cruise 2:0 past Glory in the semis and then edge Melbourne City 1:0 in the Grand Final.
All season the health of the squad was very good and apart from left-back Zullo everyone else avoided serious issues. This helped a lot with Sydney FC able to use pretty much their best line-up in more than 70% of the games.
Le Fondre’s goals, Ninkovic’s craftiness, Brattan’s rock-solid presence in midfield and the faultless centre-back pair Wilkinson-McGowan all deserve praise. In general Sydney’s main strength was their team spirit and ability to execute their game plan to perfection no matter who the opponents were.
The main weakness, if there was any, was the very young bench. Despite developing well during the campaign none of the youngsters had huge impact and as result Sydney had the third weakest contribution from their subs in the league.
Right now the outlook for next season is great, especially if as expected the majority of the regulars extend their contracts.
