Perth Glory’s 2022/23 A-League Men season hasn’t gone exactly to plan. Currently warming the last place rung on the ladder, the World Cup break couldn’t have come at a better time.
After five games, Glory has only won once against Central Coast Mariners and lost their other four games.
The team is now on the hunt for points.
It’s most recent game against premiership favourites Melbourne City highlighted a dramatic difference in skill between the two sides as Glory lost 4-0.
Glory midfielder Aaron McEneff said City are the standard Glory aspire to be.
“We want to get to that sort of standard and be competing at the top of the table. But it’s going to take time when you bring in 16 new players and consider our off-season rebuild,” he said.
Glory didn’t have the smoothest start to its season. Despite the longer than average pre-season, they didn’t get a chance to play many friendlies.
This, in culmination starting with five away games didn’t put them in the best position.
McEneff, who transferred at the start of the season from Heart of Midlothian FC in the Scottish Premiership, said in his short time at the club he has already seen improvements.
Despite Glory’s start, McEneff said not to write them off.
“I wouldn’t say there’s any need to hit a panic button at the moment,” he said.
“Obviously, there’s pressure to get results. Football is a results driven business. But I think it’s far too early to write us off.”
So what needs to change, how do they do it?
“As a group, we know we have things to improve on both defensively and in attack,” McEneff said.
Glory haven’t been able to capitalise up front. Of the chances they’re presented with, often these aren’t converted on the score card.
McEneff said a lot of Glory’s games this season have been very tight, but don’t go their favour in the end.
“They were all really tight games. To be honest, I think we I think we probably should have picked up more points than what we did,” he said.
“I think a lot of the games, when it was so tight, there may have been defensive errors or lapse in concentration from some.”
This was evident in Glory’s loss to Newcastle Jets. Arguably Glory should have won, or at least shared the points.
Newcastle were playing with 10 after a red card given to Jordan Elsey. All efforts were focused on trying to convert up front, but this resulted in errors in defence.
Which ultimately enabled a goal from Beka Mikeltadze in three minutes of added time.
McEneff said this loss was really frustrating.
“Against Newcastle we wanted to draw points. We were pushing to get a get a winner, and they were able to run down the other end and scored with a man down,” he said.
“You’re just thinking, we really couldn’t buy a point here if we tried.”
The World Cup break has come at a perfect time for Glory. An opportunity to reset, take some time to address concerns, and hopefully come back in fighting shape for the points.
“We’re under no illusions that after the break we need to pick up points,” McEneff said.
“These few weeks within the World Cup break gives us time to work on individual weaknesses. Collectively it gives us time to work on partnerships around the pitch.
“Positions on the ladder can change so drastically. If we come back from this break and maybe win our first two games. Then we could even be sitting top six.”
Feature Image: Vision Inspired Photography
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