Brosque credits new boys for A-League form

Oct 17, 2016 - 6:00 PM Captain Alex Brosque has credited Sydney FC's stellar recruitment drive for the club's eye-catching form to start the A-League season.

The Sky Blues and Melbourne City have emerged as early frontrunners for this season's title after impressing with back-to-back victories over the opening fortnight.

And Brosque, who has scored goals coming off the bench in both games, said it was the club's strong off-season that had propelled the team to its best ever start to a campaign.

"Most teams are struggling early because of the new faces they have," he said.

"(But) we've got Josh Brillante, Michael Zullo, Alex Wilkinson, Danny Vukovic, Bobo - half our team that's been starting these first few games, are new players.

"The quality in the players we've brought in have been a huge difference. The competition for places, the depth that we have at the moment, and just the good run that we had in pre-season... everyone made sure that when round one came, we were ready to go. That's the reason why we've started so well."

While Sydney FC have rocketed to the top of the ladder with twin thrashings of Western Sydney and Central Coast, Melbourne City also announced themselves as championship contenders with an emphatic derby win over Melbourne Victory.

Brosque said the Tim Cahill-led City were always going to be a heavyweight.

"We knew Melbourne City were going to have the firepower. They've started in that fashion. They look good, they're definitely going to be up there at the end of the season," he said.

"They'll be a team that's going to be hard to beat."

The 33-year-old also said coach Graham Arnold moved quickly to give his team a reality check on Monday, pointing out how his team lost their way after an unbeaten opening five weeks last season.

But he still urged his teammates to embrace the tag of title favourites early in the campaign.

"We just had a meeting and Arnie's brought all our heads in very quickly. He doesn't want us getting carried away with it and rightly so," Brosque said.

"It's a good start but if we look at last season as well, we started the first four, five games undefeated and it didn't end too well.

"This season we did make a bit of noise, saying we wanted to win all trophies. It should be that way. Sydney FC has to be a club that goes into every competition wanting to win it and I think the players really embrace that this year."

Source: AAP