Sydney FC coach Steve Corica has urged his charges to stand up and be counted amid the A-League Men powerhouse's worst ever start to a season.
The Sky Blues had high expectations after their Australia Cup triumph, but sit firmly bottom of the table with no goals after sinking to a third straight defeat, against Melbourne City at AAMI Park, on Friday night.
The loss to a City side coming off Rado Vidosic's sacking has piled pressure on both the players and Corica, just three games into the new campaign.
Veteran Rhyan Grant told Paramount Plus after Friday's 2-0 loss that some complacency may have crept in after the Cup win.
Corica admitted it was hard to pin down exactly what had gone wrong, noting Sydney were "definitely missing something at the moment" - but didn't disagree with Grant's assessment.
"Well, something's happened," Corica said.
"Definitely we're not the same team that won the Cup. So it's something we need to obviously look at and we've never had a start like this.
"Obviously it makes it even harder next week.
"But we will see the men and when they're ready to stand up and see what they're all about.
"Because you need your senior players to stand up and take responsibility on the pitch and we'll see next week."
Things won't get any easier, with Sydney next facing rampant Adelaide away at Coopers Stadium.
Sydney will need their senior players to make an impact after Grant and skipper Luke Brattan, who was distraught on the pitch post-match, both had tough nights against City.
"In the Cup, we were playing some great football, we were defending really well and we're missing a bit of everything at the moment," Corica said.
"So there is obviously that hangover at the moment but we can only fix it with those senior boys stepping up.
"Everyone's got to take responsibility, I have to take it as well. It's my responsibility as well. But the players need to obviously take responsibility as well.
"They're silly mistakes, some of them, the goals that we've been conceding.
"But you need to stop the rot really. And it has to stop this week."
Sydney got a spark when youngsters Jaiden Kucharski, Corey Hollman, Mitchell Glasson and Zachary De Jesus featured in the second half and Corica flagged potentially turning to youth after praising their impact.
Max Burgess missed the game with a groin strain and is unlikely to feature next week.
But Corica was confident Joel King, who lasted 60 minutes on return from a calf injury, hadn't re-injured himself but had just cramped up.
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