After draws in each of its past three A-League Men fixtures, expect a fired up City side to take to the pitch on Sunday afternoon.
Patrick Kisnorbo’s men were last in action away to Adelaide United, but despite goals to Andrew Nabbout and Jamie Maclaren, were unable to hold on to all three points following a second half red card.
Here’s what you should be keeping an eye out for on Sunday when your City boys face Central Coast:
A potential starting debut for Jordan Bos
With Scott Jamieson set to miss this weekend’s clash due to a one-game suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards, the stars could be aligning for Jordan Bos to make his league starting debut.
The 19-year-old made his first league appearance in Round 2 against Adelaide and has started for City in the FFA Cup twice as his integration with the first team continues following an impressive season in the NPL in 2021.
Though there are alternative options for Patrick Kisnorbo to replace Jamieson with, like shifting Scott Galloway to the left and moving one of his mobile centre-backs to the right, Bos will hope to reward his coach’s faith if the young full-back is selected to the starting XI on Sunday.
The City front three – is it kicking into gear?
Much was made in pre-season of City’s star-studded front three of Mathew Leckie, Jamie Maclaren and Andrew Nabbout, and it looks like the trio are starting to fully click with five goals and four assists between them over our past three games.
It was in our most recent 2-2 draw that our attacking fluency arguably reached its peak to this point of the season, with the two goals scored being of the highest quality in regards to flowing team moves and creating chances in high-probability areas.
Andrew Nabbout leads the league for total goal involvements (6), Jamie Maclaren is equal-top for goals scored (4) as he hunts a third-consecutive Golden Boot and Mathew Leckie was at the heart of City’s best moments last Saturday with two assists against Adelaide.
The City front three looks like it’s kicking into gear and all eyes will be on the Socceroos trio as they hunt for the vital goals to secure three points this Saturday.
The City boys to find a second-half lead – and keep it!
It was mentioned last week as well, but after another two points were dropped from a winning position against Adelaide, you can be sure that every City fan will be watching for the boys to earn a lead and hold onto it when we face Central Coast.
Prior to the Adelaide game, it was mentioned that 55% of City’s goals conceded had arrived from the 60th minute onwards. Following a further two goals conceded between the 60th and 90th minutes with Nuno Reis’ sending off of course playing a part, that figure has now risen to 63.6% – significantly above the league average 40%.
Whilst Kisnorbo will hardly want his side to ruminate on past events, he will be determined for the team to have learnt from past mistakes.
