Glory ALM Head Coach Adam Griffiths has urged his charges to back themselves and take a bold approach in Sunday’s away clash with Auckland FC (kick-off at 10am WST, watch live on Paramount+).
Click HERE to watch his full pre-match media conference.
The Round 20 match-up at Go Media Stadium is the first of two vital games the men in purple will play in New Zealand, with a trip to Wellington Phoenix to follow next Saturday.
And as the race for the top six enters its final furlong, Griffiths is backing his side to build on last weekend’s hard-fought away with Brisbane and show greater chutzpah in their attacking play.
“First and foremost we have to look at the positives from Brisbane and try and improve on those,” he said.
“The togetherness and the collective fight was much improved, we made it difficult for Brisbane to hurt us significantly and there were a lot of blocked shots in the final minutes… so that needs to continue.
“How can we improve?
“We have to play with a little bit more freedom and that’s been the message.
“Be brave, play with freedom and get that confidence back.
“Some of our ball possession principles, our specific angles, always being a passing option and having multiple passing options are things that sometimes the group goes away from and we need to remember those things that have brought us some form of success.
“When I see that and there are more positive actions, they build confidence.
“Playing with freedom is essentially that, when there’s an opportunity to attack, attack, go 1v1, dribble the player, get a cross into the box when there’s numbers.
“That’s what I want; freedom to get into the box within the structure.
“It’s normal for young players to have some sort of doubts and it’s my job as a coach and for the other senior players to embrace them, give them positive feedback and do it in the right way, so the players can then express themselves.
“One of the things I want to see from the young players is them not being afraid, doing it with freedom and removing any fear from their mentality.
“That should translate into confidence.”
Glory secured a dramatic comeback win over Auckland when the reigning Premiers visited HBF Park at the end of January, but despite the relative proximity of the two fixtures, Griffiths is not reading too much into that result.
“They played a back five recently, then they switched back to a four and they have a lot of threats,” he said.
“Against Melbourne City, they scored three goals convincingly in what I thought was a very strong performance over there, so we’ve got our work cut out.
“Although we beat them here in Perth, it’s a completely different game and we are going to have to be really on.”
In terms of early team news, meanwhile, Tom Lawrence’s foot injury will rule him out of both games in New Zealand and tenacious midfielder Gio De Abreu will not be available for selection against Auckland as he serves a one-match suspension after accruing five yellow cards.
Auckland will begin Round 20 sitting in second spot, two points behind Newcastle Jets having won ten games and scored the third-highest amount of goals in the competition (32).
New Zealand international Jesse Randall has helped himself to nine of those goals, with English import Sam Cosgrove and Aussie midfielder Lachlan Brook both claiming seven apiece.
Randall has also contributed five assists, as has fellow-All Whites representative Frances de Vries, with de Vries also delivering a competition-high 135 crosses.
Belgian midfielder Louis Verstraete, meanwhile, has drawn the most fouls in the league (43) and goalkeeper Michael Woud is ranked joint-second for clean sheets having kept seven thus far.
Since losing to Glory in Round 15, Auckland have picked up three wins and a draw and they have not failed to score in a game since a 0-0 draw with Melbourne Victory in Round One.
Sunday will mark the fourth overall meeting between the two sides, with Glory enjoying two victories to the Black Knights’ one.
Match Details
Isuzu UTE A-League 2025/26 Season Round 20
Auckland FC v Perth Glory
Go Media Stadium
Sunday 8 March 2026
Kick-off: 10am WST
#ONEGlory
ALM Match Preview: Griff calls on Glory to be brave in clash with reigning Premiers
