A-League Men: Perth Glory coach David Zdrilic insists Mustafa Amini’s departure will not impact squad

Perth Glory coach David Zdrilic has denied the termination of ex-captain Mustafa Amini’s contract will be a distraction and says they will be proactive in scouring for a replacement. Amini has barely trained with the team since Zdrilic arrived, as a litany of injury issues plagued and prevented him making an appearance this season. The club announced on Saturday they had terminated the former Socceroos and Borussia Dortmund midfielder’s contract — however, Amini has already signalled his intent to fight the decision. With the backing of the players’ union Professional Footballers Australia, Amini will argue the termination of his contract was unlawful, and his contract with the club will remain on foot until a determination is made. With Glory having lost seven times in 10 games this season and with only one win to their name, Zdrilic expressed his disappointment he never got to see Amini on the pitch. “In terms of Musti, I’m a big fan of him as a player. The team line-up, when I first came in, he was one of the first ones on the paper.,” he said. “The team was built around him, whether as a six or a 10 or an eight, he was part of that leadership of this team going forward, and the way I saw us playing, and obviously he’s hardly done a session. “He is an experienced international player, a Socceroo, to not have him on the park, for me was most disappointing; to not have him in the line-up is one thing, but not even training, it was just one thing after the other.” Zdrilic said in light of Amini’s absence on the training paddock, he doubted the news would have an effect on his squad. “The impact on the squad, he just hasn’t trained with us, so the impact in terms of training is non-existent,” he said. With the January transfer window around the corner, Zdrilic again reiterated there would be changes coming to the playing squad beyond Amini’s exit. “Players leaving, players going, changes in all the departments of the club. It’s happening in the background, there’s short-term pain,” he said. “We’re proactive, we’re not going to sit and wait till the end of the season to make changes. “We focus on the results now, and clearly everyone’s disappointed — I’m the most disappointed — but I also know how much needs to change at this club, and that starts with personnel. “There’ll be changes coming, hopefully very soon, and then we need to freshen up the team, we’ve got a lot of kids playing a lot of minutes; I didn’t envisage that when I first came in.” Anas Hamzaoui and Brandon O’Neill are both pushing for recalls having overcome injuries, while in some good news for the Glory, off-season signing Nikola Mileusnic is also back training after a pair of hamstring injuries. Starting Friday at home to Western United, Perth are set to play four games in 12 days in a stretch which could define their hopes of turning the awful year around. Zdrilic said while the schedule was challenging, they could not look beyond the next 90 minutes. “When you’re talking about the whole season, I’m looking at the next game, and the team is going to evolve, it’s going to evolve almost game to game. “We’ve been very unlucky in terms of the fact we haven’t been able to field the same team from one week to the next. We just have to accept that, and now with players coming in, it’s going to continue that way.”