Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson has vowed to shake up his squad for Saturday’s clash with Central Coast in Sydney.
In a big double header, the Glory will be looking to bounce back from six straight losses on one of the biggest stage’s this season as they play the Mariners at the SFS directly after Sydney FC play the highflying Brisbane Roar.
Ferguson already has to make at least one change this week to cover for suspended captain Jacob Burns.
But the coach said there could be many more after he was baffled last weekend by his side’s lack of hunger in a 3-0 loss to the last-placed and previously winless Sky Blues.
“We’ll shake things up this week,” declared Ferguson ahead of flying to Sydney.
“There’s going to be some changes. The way I’ve done things and set things up it should be that they should pick some stuff up if they’re smart enough.”
“We’ve got a 23-man squad so whoever comes in and takes the opportunity, it’s in their hands.”
Even star man Robbie Fowler won’t be exempt from the changes after a poor game last week, despite Ferguson and Fowler having previously had a major disagreement last year while at North Queensland over the veteran striker’s selection in the side.
“Whether Robbie’s playing or he’s not playing, we’ll try and get the best out of what’s on the park,” Ferguson said.
From Monday’s video review session Ferguson felt one of the issues facing the eighth-placed Glory was the fact his side may be trying to over complicate things with their style of play.
“We try and play overkill sometimes with our football,” he said. “When you’re in the situation we’re in, we have to try a different strategy.”
“(We’ve worked on) getting our shape right, pushing forward, getting runners going forward (and) looking for the overlapping run, getting back to what we were doing at the beginning of the season which was fantastic.”
“Again it’s probably a confidence thing with some players and we’ve got to try and get them out of that, we’ve got to be positive we’ve got to be upbeat, we’ve got to turn the corner.”
“There’s no magic formula, I’ve said that before it’s what’s within the group (and) I believe we’ve got the players.”
“I think the players here are experienced and we’ve got some youth coming through as well, so hopefully we can get there pretty soon,” he said.
