As Perth Glory get set to kick off another men’s A-League season, the pressure is firmly on to David Zdrilic to perform.
The second-year head coach presided over a disastrous 2024/25 season for the club as they finished bottom of the ladder, winning just 5 of 26 games and shipping 56 goals along the way.
Owner Ross Pelligra, himself facing scrutiny from supporters 18 months after taking over from Tony Sage, gave Zdrilic the dreaded vote of confidence towards the tail end of the last campaign.
“Pressure, whether it’s the first game or the next game, it’s part of the job, and if you can’t work under pressure, then this is the wrong job to be in,” said Zdrilic while speaking to The West Australian.
“Pressure is a privilege; it means we’re in a position and a sport where it’s a real pleasure to work in.”
Head of Football Stan Lazaridis, himself under pressure following some disastrous signings, recruited early in the offseason and, on paper at least, appears to have brought in some much-needed quality and experience. It is now up to Zdrilic to get a tune out of the squad.
“Seven or eight players that we’ve brought in are starting players, so we’ve got depth, we’ve got competition, all the things that we didn’t have previously,” Zdrilic told 9News at this week’s season launch.
There are reasons to be excited – Welsh international Tom Lawrence is arguably the most important signing since Diego Castro given his resume and potential to create chances for the starved Adam Taggart. Scott Wootton and Brian Kaltak are experienced A-League campaigners who can tighten up the defence, Luke Amos showed his potential to be a midfield star in his games last season, and Sam Sutton has impressed at left wing back since coming across from Wellington Phoenix.
Youngsters like Jaiden Kucharski, Charbel Shamoon, Rhys Bozinovski, Arion Sulemani, and Sebastian Despotovski will all be keen to push for minutes right from the first kick off.
However, results have been poor in the lead up to Round 1 – they were beaten on penalties by Wellington Phoenix in the Australia Cup, lost twice to Melbourne Victory in Mandurah and Bunbury, and went down to both Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers in New South Wales. The less said about the 9-0 loss to AC Milan, the better. Their sole victory came against National Premier League side Stirling Macedonia.
Zdrilic’s brand of high tempo, high pressing football failed to take hold last season with players regularly described as underdone, a term supporters were having nightmares about by the end. Captain Adam Taggart believes that their starting eleven is as good as any in the league, but the key will be getting them all on the pitch at the same time.
Back-to-back wooden spoons means expectations are low. However, by CEO Anthony Radic’s own admission, anything less than a finals spot will be seen as underperformance given half the league can claim a spot and there is no relegation.
With six of the first nine games at home, Glory have the opportunity to get off to a good start to the year in front of their own supporters. The excuses have run out and now is the time for David Zdrilic to deliver results, or the cycle of firing and hiring will commence once again in Perth.
All images courtesy of Tom McCarthy.
