Farina to unleash Sydney signings

18 January 2013 08:47

Frank Farina will throw his two signings straight into action as Sydney go for broke to keep their season alive against Wellington on Saturday.

Striker Joel Griffiths is finally available and will lead the Sky Blues attack, while Tiago Calvano will come straight into the side's injury-depleted defence despite joining the club just two days ago.

The Sydney boss said he had no hesitation on bringing the new boys straight into the team, confident they will do the job in a match vital to the club's hopes of making the finals.

While Calvano will add experience and some much-needed steel to the Sky Blues' porous defence, it's the addition of Griffiths which could make the biggest difference to the Sydney team.

The Sky Blues have struggled to find a permanent strike partner for marquee man Alessandro Del Piero and Farina is hopeful Griffiths and the Italian can strike up a good combination.

"I've already spoken to Joel and I just want him to play his natural game," Farina said on Friday.

"I'm not going to be teaching him how to play football.

"He's aggressive, he chases, he's a good finisher and he's a winner. I want him to play his game, work as hard as he can for as long as he can and hopefully score some goals.

"It can take a while to gel but sometimes players gel as soon as they start playing together."

Del Piero said he was looking forward to linking with Griffiths and said the pair had spoken at length about how best to get the best out of their combination.

The Italian superstar also played down his on-field spat with team-mate Ali Abbas in last weekend's win over Melbourne Heart, insisting the incident has been forgotten.

"Sometimes this thing happens on the field whether it's me, Ali or someone else, when we want to win, want to fight for the team," Del Piero said.

"Sometimes you are nervous because we are not in a good position in the standings. We want to do more and when you don't do it, there's some anger.

"But it's OK, it happened and it finished before the end of the match it's no problem.

"It's just passion to play and to win. From the first minute to the end, I want to do my best for the whole period of the game."

The Sky Blues could move into the top six for just the second time this season with a win over the Phoenix at Allianz Stadium.