Perth Glory Football Director Stan Lazaridis says Perth Glory is still a work in process, but is heading in the right direction following a tough start to the season.

David Zdrillic’s maiden season as Glory coach has gotten off to a rocky start with two losses against Maccarthur FC and Wellington in the opening two rounds of the 2024/25 A-League season. 

Across both matches, Glory conceded eight goals – six against Maccarthur and two against Wellington tonight, with last season’s leaky defence form following them into this season.   

Glory currently occupy the bottom spot on the table after two losses against Maccarthur FC and Wellington, conceding eight goals across the opening two matches, with last season’s defensive flaws still continuing to plague them. 

While the opening round was an ugly affair, signs of an improved performance was evident as Glory’s new-look squad took the field in the following match, appearing more confident with some positive signs to take away. 

“With this new group, we’re just trying to form the best kind of formation that’s going to work week to week,” Lazaridis told SportFM. 

“The first week was a baptism of fire for a lot of the young players. The first A-League games for six or seven of them and it was a really tough outing. 

“We’ve seen a marked improvement with the game last weekend, Wellington and we made two errors and we got punished against a really good side, but things are coming, we’re going to be better.

“You could see during the course of that game that there was some really good passages of play where we probably had 60 percent of possession of the ball, which never really happened last season. 

“These are the things when we look at the game, we analyse these sort of moments.“

Last weekend’s 2-0 loss in the first home game of the season wasn’t the ideal start for their home campaigns, and the seven thousand Glory fans that showed up last Saturday night. 

But they also witnessed positive signs for what’s to come in future games under Zdrillic’s leadership. 

Lazaridis has praised Zdrillic for his work so far and rapport with the playing group, and is confident his approach could bring more wins and draw more fans back to HBF Park.  

“Right at the moment we’re playing in patches and I think the fans could identify with that because we’re making silly mistakes and those mistakes at the moment we’re getting punished for. 

“The players really love him. They understand what he wants. It’s a completely different style of training. It’s completely different to what many of the other coaches are doing. It’s a new way and you’ll see it once it’s in full action. 

“The fans are gonna love the way we’re going to play. So I just ask for a little bit of patience on the results will come and we will we will be good. 

“Make no mistake I haven’t come back here to just ramble my way through. We’re gonna have good performances bring the crowds back and and try and light up the stadium again.”

With crucial glimpses of improvement in round two’s hit out against Wellington, Glory expects to continue taking steps forward this weekend against reigning champions Central Coast Mariners away from home. 

The two sides are still looking for their first win of the season, with the Mariners drawing their opening two bouts. 

Looking ahead to this clash, Lazaridis has confirmed there will be tactical change and is Glory is more than capable of challenging the Mariners for the first win of the season. 

“The Central Coast Mariners have been absolutely outstanding in the last few years in what they’ve done,” he said.

“But they’ve lost 11 players over the last two years so they aren’t the Mariners of last year or the year before and that’s a real gettable result for us. 

“We can really go there and get something out of this game, where we look at the side and to be honest, no teams scare us. There’s no side we’re looking at that we think it’s going to be lucky to get anything out of this game. 

“We don’t feel that we’re afraid of any team. Going to the Mariners, it’ll be how we start, making sure we don’t make any errors, and we’ll be better. Hopefully we can bring something back after the game.”

IMAGE: Perth Glory FC