THE STRENGTHS

Without Savannah McCaskill's goals at the back-end of last season, Sydney lacked a traditional striker, with midfielders and wingers like Lisa De Vanna, Princess Ibini, Foord and Sofia Huerta taking up the goalscoring attack.

This season they've recruited Adelaide United's reigning goalscoring powerhouse, Veronica Latsko, in the hope of taking the pressure off their midfielders. It will be very interesting to see how she operates in a very different attacking set-up.

We know she's deadly in front of goal and she worked well with the likes of Michelle Heyman, but how you fit so many attacking weapons into the frame now you have a traditional point at the end of the pyramid could prove a challenge for Juric.

It might be a case that too many cooks spoil the broth. But after 28 goals last season without Latsko (who notched nine for the record), it's likely they'll simply overpower most sides.

“Being Sydney FC, we do usually attract some key international players too," Polias says.

“We’re attracting a lot more foreign players now, every team has at least three or four players every season, so in that regard it’s helped increase the depth and competitiveness of the league… it’s vital to our league surviving and being competitive across the board.

“The next obvious step is to extend the season and make sure that we're playing a full two rounds… I just don’t understand why that part of it hasn’t progressed… it just needs to be made to happen.

"It needs to be a priority in order for the league to continue to grow. I’ve said that for the last few seasons and it hasn’t happened yet, so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

"We don’t know what the decision makers have decided, but I just hope it’s being seriously discussed."

THE CHALLENGES

It's becoming harder to pick out a traditional weak link in this squad. Aubrey Bledsoe is nailed-down in that goalkeeping position, the likes of Ellie Brush, Shadeene Evans and Alanna Kennedy add versatile, threatening defensive-to-attacking weapons and everyone from centre-midfield on are title-winners in their own right.

It's no wonder most of our team are tipping them for Premiers (story to come). But once again it comes down to those shoddy starts and dismal away records. One win, one draw and four losses on the road last season isn't a Premiership winning record.

Pack in as many stars as you want, how do you overcome that mental fragility?

POLIAS SAYS, WE'RE IN IT FROM THE BEGINNING THIS TIME

“Every year we’re expected to be up there, and we haven’t missed a finals series yet and that will never change," she beams at us confidently.

"We’re a club with huge success and high expectations across the board. Every year the team that’s put together is expected to win big things, and it won’t be any different this season”.

“In recent years we’ve made life a big hard on ourselves at the start of the season. The year before last we had three or four straight losses, then last season we had a good start in the derby and then a horrible run, and we had to claw our way out of a hole the last two seasons.

"A huge goal for us this season will be to start the season hitting the ground running, and not getting ourselves into holes… so however we go about that, I’m sure Ante has a plan."

“This year’s preparation was a bit different because of the World Cup, I think that had a big role to play… the bulk of our squad will be here, but there is a big chunk of players that are overseas that generally do miss the majority of the preseason anyway."