Glory Head Coach Richard Garcia has been encouraged by his squad’s physical and mental response to Saturday’s opening-round draw with Adelaide United.
View his full media conference HERE.
The men in purple begin their swathe of eight consecutive away Isuzu Ute A-League Men games on Friday by taking on Western United at AAMI Park (kick-off at 4.45pm WST).
And Garcia believes they will be fired up and desperate to claim all three points.
“I think the guys felt a bit undercooked at the first game and started slowly,” he said, “but you can tell that they want to come into this period with the mentality that we want to win every game.
“The guys are even more hungry, especially after almost taking the game out at the weekend.
“I think they felt hard done by that they didn’t take all three points at home.
“The mentality has been fantastic in the week, the training has been good and now it’s about us going out there and doing it on Friday night.”
Garcia went on to confirm that Andy Keogh has been sidelined by the calf injury which forced him from the fray against Adelaide, but that we can expect to see more of fellow-frontmen Daniel Sturridge and Adrian Sardinero in the United clash.
“We’ve got to be ready to build Daniel up and make sure that he’s ready to play a full game,” he said.
“That’s going to be done in the coming games, so we’ll give him a bit more time come Friday and then build up from there.
“We’ve got an opportunity to be able to train a little bit more while we’re over here, so that’s going to be a great opportunity for us to get even more fitness into him and get him to a point where he can participate more and more every week.
“With Andy probably missing these three games in Melbourne, it opens up our thinking of how we want to play and opportunities for Adrian to come in.
“I thought he was fantastic when he came on last weekend.
“He’s another one who’s slowly building and in the short time that he played last week, he showed glimpses of his quality and we’re expecting more of that come Friday.
“He’ll take a more active role in the team and will slowly build up on the same path as Daniel.
“Daniel Stynes [also] did very well when he came on the other day and made a real push for a starting spot.
“The squad at the moment, with the injuries that we’ve got, is pretty self-explanatory, but the good thing is we still have guys pushing for starting spots.”
Glory’s only previous away meeting with Western United ended in an astonishing 5-4 defeat in Round 2 last season, with the WA side subsequently gaining revenge via a 3-0 triumph in Round 20.
Jon Aloisi’s men began their 2021/22 campaign with a narrow defeat at the hands of Melbourne Victory in Geelong last weekend.
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