Head Coach David Zdrilic is expecting his Glory side to show further improvement in Saturday’s eagerly-anticipated 2024 Australia Cup Round of 32 clash with Melbourne City at the Sam Kerr Football Centre (kick-off at 5:30pm, tickets available HERE).
Click HERE to view his full pre-match interview.
The men in purple provided an exciting glimpse of the new high-tempo, attacking style of play Zdrilic has introduced during last week’s Play Off victory over Brisbane Roar in Darwin.
And the Head Coach is backing his squad to produce an even better display against City.
“The boys are in great shape,” he said.
“I think they’ve embraced everything that we’re trying to do.
“When we first came in, we talked about changing the identity, the football philosophy and in that first game, we saw the first steps in the right direction.
“It was great to get a positive result and the mood is very positive and confident.
“In training since that game, we’ve been able to keep adding the building blocks and we’re really looking forward to the game against City.
“I think we’re really looking forward to taking another step, particularly in the way we want to play and showing that we have a totally new style and philosophy and we’re trying to implement that.
“The most important thing for me is the progression in the style that we’re trying to play.
“This game against City is the next step in that progression, so for me, it’s about how we perform and apply the new principles that we’ve been working on and show that we’ve advanced again on the performance we showed against Brisbane.”
Glory will be up against a City side that reached the semi-finals of the Australia Cup last season, but Zdrilic has not been dwelling on the threats Aurelio Vidmar’s side will pose.
“Just like it was against Brisbane Roar, it’s very difficult to know what we’re going to come up against,” he said.
“Obviously they have a game that they saw [Roar v Glory], so they were able to see some of what we can do, but we don’t have any real insight into what they’ve done, their pre-season and where they’re at.
“But nor do we really focus on that.
“We have a lot of work that we’re doing here, things that we’re trying to implement and our own structure and it’s going to come down to who has done more work in the pre-season.
“I think we’re in a good place now and we’re going to have to wait and see where City are, but I can guarantee that our style and philosophy are going to be very clear and evident.
“How that pans out, we’ll have to wait and see, but I think it’s going to be an exciting game either way.”
In terms of the squad that he will have at his disposal on Saturday evening, the Head Coach confirmed that a number of players who missed the win over Brisbane will come back into selection contention.
“For the game in Darwin, we actually had quite a few players that were unavailable for various reasons… so it’ll be a different squad,” he said.
“I think we’ve got a very good, competitive squad and for me as a coach, it’s great to have so many very good players competing for spots in the squad.
“So we’ll be seeing some new faces [on Saturday].”
Zdrilic went on to emphasise how much of a lift Glory’s Members and fans can give the players in what will be the club’s first appearance at this stage of the competition since 2019.
“The fans play a crucial role in embracing what we’re trying to do,” he said.
“If they do that, it will provide a massive push because here in Perth, we know we have a fantastic fan base who want to see an attacking brand of football.
“I think we’ve delivered that already and now it’s our job to keep enhancing it and backing it up week on week.
“We can guarantee that we’re going to have a go in every game and that’s what they’re going to see.
“We want them to embrace that as well and help us push the team on no matter what happens.”
Like Glory, City come into the game with a squad which has undergone a major overhaul during the off-season.
A number of big names have departed, including Jamie Maclaren, Curtis Good, Tolgay Arslan and Leo Natel, but Marco Tilio has returned on loan from Celtic and he has been joined by ex-Brisbane Roar defender Kai Trewin and versatile former Argentina Under-20 international midfielder German Ferreyra.
The only previous Cup meeting between the two clubs came in October 2015 when Glory ran out 3-1 winners at nib Stadium to seal a place in the Final.
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