The Central Coast Mariners came into the league as one of the great unknowns, something defender Ziggy Gordon believes is a big advantage.
Prior to the season the club recruited 12 new players, including four internationals, with last week’s starting line-up featuring eight players who weren’t there last season.
While this is not the first time the club has made significant changes to their line-ups, the team has shown promising signs in the first month of the season – knocking off Perth Glory last week.
Gordon says the team’s naivety makes them hungrier to prove themselves and not be influenced by the club’s recent struggles.
“I think that we’ve got a new team and we are maybe a bit naïve to how the league works and how the teams operate works in our favour, because no one goes into any game with any fear,” he said.
“Especially from my end and a lot of the boys who’ve come into the A-League for the first time, we don’t know exactly what to expect so we go into every game knowing if we do our jobs we’re good enough to compete against any team.
“We don’t know about the history or about how last season was for the Mariners or the season before, we just know that this season we’re a strong team we’re a good outfit.
“I think a lot of clubs should be scared that they don’t know what they’re going to get when they play the Mariners, we don’t have maybe a distinct style they can look onto and say ‘that’s how the Mariners play’, it’s a new team with a lot of hungry players and young players who want to express themselves.”
The Central Coast Mariners travel to AAMI Park to face Melbourne City on a night City celebrates its tenth anniversary.
The Mariners have only recorded one win against City in their past six meetings, with City looking to extend their lead on top of the table and unbeaten run to five matches.
“I think every game’s massive in this league, it’s a different mindset that a lot of the foreign boys need to have with them to the A-League,” Gordon said.
“The fact there’s only 26 games, every game is more intensified and every game is just that little more important especially when you through the season.”
