Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson is confident his side can take advantage of Melbourne Heart’s form slump and the absence of Fred when the two sides meet at AAMI Park.
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson is confident his side can take advantage of Melbourne Heart’s form slump and the absence of Fred when the two sides meet at AAMI Park.
Heart were the Hyundai A-League’s in-form team just a couple of weeks ago but a shock home loss to Adelaide United and a 1-1 draw against Gold Coast last week has seen them drop out of the top two.
And things got even worse for Melbourne when attacking midfielder and captain Fred was ruled out for up to six weeks after picking up a groin injury against Gold Coast.
In contrast, Perth are unbeaten in their past three games after picking up a crucial 1-0 win at Wellington last week and could move back into the top six if they can take something from the Heart.
“It’s a great time for us to catch them. We’ve got to make sure we can try to capitalise on that,” Ferguson said.
“When Fred’s out they’ve lost a few games and when Fred goes off they seem to lose their shape and balance.”
“He makes fantastic runs, he’s got a great energy level, he gets up and down the park and he creates things, so he’ll be sorely missed.”
“We are starting to put some good results together and that’s what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to start to be consistent when we go away from home.”
The coach said Glory captain Jacob Burns would face a fitness test on Friday after picking up a knock against Wellington, but was confident he would play.
Central defender Bas van den Brink will return after missing the past two matches with a hamstring injury, but faces a battle to regain his spot after the assured performances of Josh Mitchell and Steve Pantelidis kept the Phoenix at bay last week.
“There’s still probably one position I’m considering changing but everybody did a great job going over there and putting in a fantastic performance and we came back with a great result,” Ferguson said.
With a quick turnaround between the Heart game and the fixture in Sydney on Wednesday, Ferguson said it may be necessary to rotate his squad.
“We’ve got one or two who are on the verge of suspension at the moment and one or two that are maybe carrying little things at the moment so by the time this game is over we might have a few problems,” he said.
