Sydney FC are winless in three matches but coach Ufuk Talay is adamant his high-quality squad has the mettle to make something of their A-League Men season.
Friday night's 2-0 defeat to Melbourne Victory followed a 4-3 loss to Brisbane and a 0-0 draw with Wellington.
It's all left the Sky Blues seventh, at odds with a red-hot start to the season that started with plenty of hype and excitement.
"I agree with the expectation of the squad that we have, the players that we have. I think not being able to maintain a starting eleven, week in and week out, has definitely hurt us," Talay said.
"I think Douglas (Costa), one of our most important players, not being available for a long period of time (through a hamstring injury) has definitely hurt us in that position.
"Overall, I think we are a team that creates a lot of scoring opportunities. In the prior seven weeks, we've been quite okay defensively.
"When we brought Rhino (Rhyan Grant) back in as a central defender, I think we've been a little more solid in that space.
"But we continue to go. We have the belief that we have a good team. We have good players. We can still finish in a good spot. It's not doom and gloom. There's plenty of time to go."
Sydney next play Adelaide and Western Sydney, both at home, in two games potentially pivotal to the finals race.
Talay's January transfer wishlist is simple - an Australian central defender who can slot straight into his back four.
The Sky Blues are without Socceroo Hayden Matthews, who is completing a transfer to an overseas club, believed to be Portsmouth.
Sydney are hoping to extend defender Alexandar Popovic's loan from K League club Gwangju FC.
"There's a lot of discussions at the moment happening," Talay said.
"We need an Australian player because we've got five visa spots within the team. So it's an Australian defender that we're looking at.
"(Player management boss) Alexander Baumjohann is currently having those discussions with certain players. We are definitely looking to bring a central defender to add value.
"We don't want to bring a player that's just going to be a number for us. He definitely needs to come in and start."
