Recruiting:
Ins: Jacob Burns (FC Unirea Urziceni, Romania – 3 years), Chris Coyne (Colchester United, England - 3 years), Howard Fondyke (Perth Glory NYL - 2 years), Brent Griffiths (Perth Glory NYL – 2 years), Branko Jelic (Energie Cottbus, Germany – 3 years), Andrija Jukic (Perth Glory NYL - 2 years), Scott Neville (Perth Glory NYL - 3 years), Anthony Skorich (Perth Glory NYL – 2 years) , Mile Sterjovski (Derby County, England - ), Andy Todd (Derby County, England – 1 year), Aleks Vrteski (FK Pobeda – 2 years).
Outs: Jason Petkovic (retired), Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Newcastle Jets), David Tarka (released), Dino Djulbic (Rot Weiss Ahlen, Germany), Nick Rizzo (released), James Robinson (North Queensland Fury), Adrian Trinidad (released), Amaral (released), Josip Magdic (released), Nikita Rukavytsya (FC Twente, Netherlands), Hayden Doyle (Perth Glory NYL), Hayden Foxe (released), Mark Lee (released)
Re-signed: Eugene Dadi (1 year), Adriano Pellegrino (2 years), Naum Sekulovski (2 years), Victor Sikora (1 year), Scott Bulloch (1 year), Tando Velaphi (2 years), Wayne Srhoj (1 year).
Analysis:
The Glory have completed one of the most ambitious recruiting drives seen in this competition's history. Not content to bring three current Socceroos to the side in the form of skipper Jacob Burns, marquee man Mile Sterjovski and Chris Coyne, coach Dave Mitchell has also recruited former Blackburn captain Andy Todd and Serbian striker Branko Jelic. Mitchell looks to have fixed the Glory's leaky defence through signing Todd, Coyne and Scott Neville from the Youth League, but questions remain over his strike power since the departure of Nikita Rukavytsya to FC Twente. Rukavytsya's pace and Eugene Dadi's predatory instincts supplied 20 goals last season, but the pre-season games so far have seen Sterjovski, for all his quality, fail to replicate that chemistry with the big Frenchman. Jelic, a golden boot winner in the Chinese League, has only had one pre-season start after visa issues delayed his arrival. The Serbian showed some good touch, but still didn't score against the Gold Coast leaving questions over the Glory's attacking options still hanging over the club. Indeed, integrating these new signings into the squad and blending them with the current players is the biggest issue facing Mitchell.
Pre-Season:
One win and four losses hardly seems like good pre-season form, but when one considers the nature of the opponents, there could be extenuating factors. A 1-0 first-up loss to Adelaide was played with a patched-up squad minus the star signings, while the Glory were hardly disgraced in a 1-0 loss to English Premier League club Wolverhampton. Fulham proved another step up in a 5-0 thrashing but the Glory still beat North Queensland 1-0 before going down to the Gold Coast by a goal with an injury and illness-ravaged squad.
Improvements:
The Glory's back four seems to be the major area of improvement this season after conceding 44 goals during 2008-09. Part of the problem was a lack of stability, as Mitchell struggled to select the same back four week in, week out, with Hayden Foxe and David Tarka's injury concerns. If Andy Todd and Chris Coyne stay fit, the Glory's backline should be hard to breach, while further forward, Burns should slot in effectively alongside Wayne Srhoj in a midfield that will hold onto possession more effectively than its predecessor. This should also alleviate pressure on the back four and reduce the goals conceded tally.
Concerns:
Mitchell's primary concern is getting all his champions players out on the park in time to gel into a champion team, with the previously mentioned Sterjovski/Dadi partnership a good example of this taking time to evolve. The coach has other worries too. Gold Coast boss Miron Bleiberg has suggested that outside the star signings, the Glory lacks the depth to take them forward if those players suffer injuries or if the Socceroos representatives are called up for national duty. Furthermore, the Glory face a punishing travel schedule as they make the trips to Townsville and Wellington twice this season. Indeed, the draw's done them no favours, with just 13 home matches, although they do play five of their last eight games at the newly re-named ME Bank Stadium.
Key player:
The notion of being a key, marquee player put the mozz on Sydney's John Aloisi last season, so it's with great trepidation that Mile Sterjovski's name gets put forward in this category. Despite playing more as a midfielder in the Australian set-up, Sterjovski has been brought to the club as a striker, replacing the departed Rukavytsya. Despite showing some good touches so far, Sterjovski doesn't appear to have quite found his feet up front for the Glory, while his partnership with fellow striker Eugene Dadi hasn't had much of a chance to develop. But certainly Sterjovski's scoring ability will be intrinsic to the Glory's chances of making the finals for the first time as, apart from Dadi and Jamie Harnwell, there are not many proven goal scorers in the side. Just to add to the pressure, Sterjovski's position in the Socceroos' squad for next year's World Cup finals could be dependent on his form this season, meaning the stakes are very high for the friendly hitman.
Up or down?
Having finished second last in 2008-09, going down further would be an unmitigated disaster for the promotion of football in Perth, particularly considering the signings Mitchell has made. That being said, Mitchell's excellent recruiting should only add to the quality players already there from last year's squad, which still managed to beat premier Melbourne on two occasions. The overseas signings and extending the play-offs to a final six should see Perth make its first finals' appearance since the end of the old NSL and if the Glory make it that far, they have the big name performers to thrive under that sort of pressure. But big questions still linger over whether Mitchell can blend the new and older players effectively in time for the season's start, while Perth has to improve its form on the road to be a seriously challenger, having only picked up four of a possible 33 points during the last campaign.
David Mitchell
"First of all we want to play finals football. When you're in that, you've got a chance to win it. We want to be competing at the right end of the table 'cause the club hasn't been there for a little while and we've generated a lot of interest and we've got some good players. We've just got to blend them together now and time is the biggest factor against us. It's not make-or-break this season but certainly, we've generated a lot of interest and we want to get people back, that's important to the club and for people to take notice of us again."
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Check out all our 2009-10 A-League Team Previews:
Adelaide United | Brisbane Roar | Central Coast Mariners | Gold Coast United | Melbourne Victory | Newcastle Jets | North Queensland Fury | Perth Glory | Sydney FC | Wellington Phoenix