Sydney FC are wary of facing a “wounded” Melbourne side in Saturday’s Big Blue after beleaguered Victory boss Grant Brebner vowed to make “ruthless decisions” as his club tries to pick itself off the bottom of the table.

Sydney coach Steve Corica has urged his side to ignore the form guide heading into their first clash of the season against their oldest rivals.

“A hundred percent,” Corica said. “That’s what I am trying to make sure. We need to focus on our job, treat them with respect because they can be a wounded team and respond to that, we don’t want that to happen against us obviously.”

Corica’s approach is in stark contrast to that of Brebner, who has used the run-up to deliver some home truths to his side that has won just twice all season, slamming their attitude and commitment.

Brebner had defended his players all season - but on Friday, he could no longer contain his frustration at their performances and vowed to make sweeping changes if they cannot reverse successive heavy defeats against rivals Melbourne City and Adelaide United in the past fortnight.

“It has to change.” Brebner said. “There’s no magic recipe. There are now conversations being had, emotions coming out ... the decisions being made will be brutal and ruthless. We need to start looking at long-term decisions.

“The manner in which we are defending. I am questioning how much we are putting on the line, how much it means [to players] keeping the ball out of the net.

“We can talk about being an attractive attacking football club, but ultimately we need to be really strong, ruthless, defensive minded when it comes to the goals we are leaking.”

He said there was far too much poor decision making and his players were not just papering over the cracks - they were falling down a crevice.