When Miron Bleiberg sees the Perth Glory of 2010/11 he sees a confident team.
And the Gold Coast United mentor puts the rise in attitude down to two men – Robbie Fowler and Mile Sterjovski.
United take on Glory in Perth on Sunday, and while the westerners squad is much the same as the 2009/10 version, Bleiberg believes the addition of the English striker and the form of Sterjovski has lifted the others to a new level.
"Nothing much has changed from last year," Bleiberg said.
"Perth has always been a good team but the difference this year is in the whole concept of what Perth believes in themselves as a club and a team."
"There is no question about the quality of Fowler but the biggest part of the equation is the confidence he brings."
And that confidence has helped Perth to an unbeaten start to the season with attacking partner Sterjovski netting three goals to be the early leader in the race for the Golden Boot.
"There is a big change with Mile too. He took the year to adjust to the A-League and with the drama with the national team I don't think his head was 100 per-cent on the job – but now it is," Bleiberg added.
"Fowler brings the confidence and Mile brings the quality."
While Perth's frontline flourishes, Bleiberg still has work to do in the attacking third.
Joel Porter is long-odds to travel to Perth and the addition of Bruce Djite, who replaced dual Golden Boot winner Shane Smeltz, means a rethink in tactics.
"Bruce is a very different player to Smeltz. He is stronger than Smeltz and where Smeltz was an in-between player, Bruce is a more powerful target man," Bleiberg said.
"It would be stupid of me to expect him to play like Smeltz, but at the end of the day if Djite scores five goals, Joel Porter scores five goals and two others score five goals, that's 20 and one better than 19 (Smeltz's tally last season)."
Bleiberg hinted at a completely new formation when asked who the 'others' might be.
"It could be (James) Brown or Tahj (Minniecon) up front with Bruce, or maybe both of them," he said.
Either way, Bleiberg is relishing the challenge ahead.
"For us it is a big challenge (against Perth)," he said.
"But these are the challenges we want. Like if you are a tennis player you want to beat (Roger) Federer because that's when you make a name for yourself."