Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has welcomed Sydney FC's appointment of former Socceroos boss Frank Farina, claiming it will make the struggling giant very hard to beat.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has welcomed Sydney FC's appointment of former Socceroos boss Frank Farina, claiming it will make the struggling giant very hard to beat.
Farina, who was sacked as Brisbane Roar manager in 2009 after a drink-driving incident and replaced by Postecoglou, was unveiled as the new Sydney manager on Wednesday.
The Victory coach, who was in charge of the Australian Under 23 side while Farina coached the senior squad, said he was pleased to see his former colleague return to A-League management.
"It's good to see him back," Postecoglou said after Victory training on Thursday.
"I worked with Frank at the Socceroos. He's had a very good coaching career.
"We love to write people off, particularly coaches in this country. If you have one failure it's almost like 'that's it you're gone, you're finished'.
"So it's good to see him back in the A-League. I think he'll make them a pretty tough outfit to beat for the rest of the year. (I'm) pleased for him personally, but (it's) good for the competition because you need Sydney to be going strong."
After a patchy start to the season, Postecoglou's team ride a strong wave of form heading into Friday night's meeting with Perth Glory at AAMI Park.
They have won three of their past four A-League matches, but will be missing Archie Thompson and Mark Milligan after their selection in the Socceroos squad for the East Asian Cup qualifiers, while young defender Sam Gallagher is suspended after being sent off in the 2-0 win over Western Sydney.
Glory will also be without internationals Scott Jamieson and Michael Thwaite, and Postecoglou is confident his team will be able to cover their losses.
"We get Marcos Flores back which obviously helps," he said.
"We've kind of had to cope with this almost on a fortnightly basis. We've had Marco (Rojas), Archie and Millsy out before on international duty. I guess the only difference this time is at least all the other teams are affected as well.
"With Marcos Flores coming back he provides a little bit more attacking quality for us and I'm pretty confident we'll be alright.
"Defensively, obviously we've got to replace Sammy (Gallagher) as well, so Petar Franjic will come in. Aside from that we'll pretty much keep it as is."
And Postecoglou, whose Brisbane Roar team defeated Perth in last season's grand final, believes the experience they had in reaching the decider would stand the Glory in good stead.
"The success they had last year, when you have that sort of success it instils a belief in the team that goes beyond just one year," he said.
"I'm sure they've still got that, they're still very threatening up front."