Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay Photo: PHOTOSPORT
New Sydney FC coach Ufuk Talay stressed his team has "room to improve" despite handing Adelaide United a 5-1 thrashing in his first game at the helm of the A-League side on Saturday.
Talay replaced Steve Corica as coach on Wednesday after Sydney lost their first three games of the new season and oversaw an impressive upturn in the team's performance with a comprehensive dismantling of previously unbeaten Adelaide.
"It's promising," said Talay. "It's only one game. I think you expect a response when a new coach comes in, but I think they've set the tone and set the standard of what we can build on.
"I'm very happy, I'm very excited with the group at the moment, especially after this 90 minutes that they've played and there's still a lot to work on. I think there's room to improve."
Joe Lolley smashed his shot into the top corner in the fourth minute to score Sydney's first goal of the season and he doubled his side's lead nine minutes later from close range.
Jaiden Kucharski added another two before halftime while Fabio Gomes scored the fifth a minute after the restart to leave Zack Clough's 67th minute penalty as nothing more than a consolation for Adelaide.
The win comes as the A-League adjourns for the international break but Talay believes the pause will allow him to make more of the changes necessary to further improve Sydney's fortunes before facing Western Sydney Wanderers on Nov. 25.
"I look at it as a positive in the sense that we get a nice 10 days, a nice window, to actually really instil and implement what we want the players to do," he said.
"That leads into the derby so hopefully we work the boys hard in the next 10 days and keep continuing to build."
- Reuters