Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson has vowed that his side will meet fire with fire when they take on Melbourne Victory at nib Stadium on Saturday night.
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson has vowed that his side will meet fire with fire when they take on Melbourne Victory at nib Stadium on Saturday night.
Attacking trio Marco Rojas, Archie Thompson and Marcos Flores have all been in fine form for the high-flying visitors in recent weeks, but Ferguson believes that the best way to nullify their threat is to go on the offensive.
“Victory are a team that are on a high at the moment, playing good football and getting good results,” he said.
“But we’re at home where we’ve only lost once this year and we’re pretty confident in our own backyard, so let’s take the game to Victory.
“Rojas, Archie and Flores are on fire for them at the moment and (Mark) Milligan is doing a good job as well as a screener in midfield.
“I look at how we can stop them and what we can do to make our chances count and get that win.
“It’s about us as well.
“It’s not just about them coming here and us trying to shut up shop.
“We’ll be doing everything we can to get a good result for our fans and hopefully get on a run and push ourselves up into that top five.”
And Ferguson remains adamant that the men in purple are indeed close to recapturing the kind of consistent form that drove them all the way to last year’s Grand Final.
“As I keep saying, I don’t feel that we’re that far away,” he said.
“I think we just need to tweak a couple of little things here and there and cut out the silly mistakes because every time we make a mistake at the moment, we seem to be getting punished for it.
“Jeronimo (Neumann) was in our box three times last week at Adelaide and scored two goals.
“That’s the sort of thing we need to clamp down on.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re tight and difficult to beat and keep our discipline.
“We are creating a lot of chances, but unfortunately they’ve not been going in, but I’m confident that’ll come.
“If we keep believing in what we’re doing and stick to the game plan, we’ll turn it around.”
In terms of his team selection for the Victory clash, meanwhile, the Glory coach played his cards close to his chest, only confirming that Michael Thwaite has all but recovered from his calf strain and will be back in action in the very near future.
“We’re obviously close with Thwaitey in terms of whether he’s going to be in or out,” he said, “so we’re going to give him every opportunity to prove his fitness.
“He’s been working very hard behind the scenes doing a lot of rehab, so we’ll see how he reacts to today’s session and make the call on him tomorrow.
“I don’t like to give out the team until I’ve spoken to the boys and let them know who’s in and who’s not.
“That’s just a courtesy and it’s something that I’ve always done.”
And on the subject of possible new arrivals at the club, Ferguson confirmed that transfer negotiations with an unnamed target are at an advanced stage and could bear fruit as early as next week.
“We’ve put an offer to a player,” he said, “and we’re just waiting on a reply from his agent, so hopefully we’ll have something done by Monday.”
Hyundai A-League Round 17
PERTH GLORY v MELBOURNE VICTORY
Saturday, 19 January
Nib Stadium
Kick-off: 7pm
