Our captain Jacob Burns returns to team for Saturday’s game against the Heart.
Jacob Burns has insisted that Perth Glory don’t need to make major changes in order to improve their form and believes that Saturday’s trip to Melbourne Heart offers the men in purple the perfect opportunity to force their way back into the winners’ circle.
Last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Melbourne Victory extended Glory’s winless run to four games, but the club skipper feels that the side has been desperately unfortunate not to pick up more than two points during that sequence.
“To be honest, the group is disappointed off the back of not getting maximum points from a couple of home games,” he said, “but we’re not disappointed in the manner that we’re playing.
“People that understand football will agree that we’ve dominated just about every game that we’ve played in and created numerous chances, so it’s just a matter of time before those start hitting the back of the net.
“I don’t think much needs to change really.
“It would be different if we weren’t creating chances and teams were getting in and scoring loads of goals against us, but that’s not the case.
“We’re full of confidence, but we’ve set the bar high for ourselves on the back of last season.
“We want to be up there and amongst it and the middle of the table is not where we want to be, but we’re confident that come the business end of the season, we’ll be right up there.
“Now we have to think about what we want to do and go over to play Heart with confidence in the group and get three points.
“We played them away in pre-season and beat them, we’ve played them at home earlier this season and beaten them and we’ll take confidence from that, for sure.”
And Burns was equally upbeat and defiant when it came to the subject of his own disciplinary record.
“To be fair, I’m getting tired of even talking about it,’ he said, “there’s more to my game than that
“I’ve said it enough times, that I play the game in a manner that’s served me well throughout my whole career.
“If I went into games thinking about cards hanging over my head, I wouldn-t be the same player, so I won’t change a thing about my game.
“People that play in my position make more tackles than anyone else and you’re on that fine line when you’re in there and amongst it.
“I’m also the captain and the leader of the club and I feel a responsibility to ask the questions and sometimes referees don’t like that, but I’m still going to go about my business.”
Burns went on to reveal that his regular central midfield partner Liam Miller is still battling to overcome his back problem in time to feature against Heart and also expressed the disappointment felt among the playing group by last week’s AFC decision to reduce Australia’s allocation of Asian Champions league places, thus denying Glory an opportunity to debut in the high-profile competition.
“It was extremely deflating,” he said.
“You work your socks off to get into finals, play grand finals and finish high up the ladder and for it to be taken away overnight was something that I didn’t like, that’s for sure.
“It leaves a lot to be desired, the way the AFC are running things.
“You look at some of the countries that have been given three or four places and I don’t think it’s merited.
“So all we can do this year is try and win the thing and guarantee ourselves that place.”
