A-League Men: Perth Glory coach David Zdrilic says club will look for replacement for departed Luis Canga

Perth Glory coach David Zdrilic has confirmed they will hunt for a replacement for departed defender Luis Canga when the January transfer window swings open. But while the Glory are staring down a share in the A-League record for longest winless run this weekend, Zdrilic says he is not thinking about the prospect of a slice of unwanted history. Having already forecast some transfer window dealings when it opens in January, the Glory got the ball rolling on Wednesday when they revealed they parted ways with Ecuadorian centre-back Luis Canga. Canga had started eight games after signing in September, but after a promising start, his form fell by the wayside as the Glory’s struggles continued. He was not the only one of Perth’s foreigners to struggle, with Cristian Caicedo, Hiroaki Aoyama and Anas Hamzaoui also having failed to impress fans. Zdrilic put Canga’s poor form down to an inability to settle in Australia and said it was an amicable decision, but they would look for a replacement in January. “International transfers, or any kind of transfers, but especially guys coming from overseas, it doesn’t always work out,” Zdrilic said. “He also identified it, so no hard feelings, we left with very positive, conversations and we wish him the best and he wishes us the best as well. “There’s many parts to it, you could watch the part on the field where he clearly wasn’t as comfortable, didn’t settle in, and didn’t really get to the fitness levels that we were expecting for himself as well. “There’s other things off the field: the language barrier and all these things, and getting used to the team and the culture and Australia, this city, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. “I’ve been overseas as a player, and I know that exact feeling so we shook hands, no hard feelings.” Canga was signed after the Glory had missed out on another transfer target: Cristian Devenish, who opted out of joining Perth at the eleventh hour to instead sign for Portuguese Primeira Liga side AVS. Perth’s defence has struggled all season long and while they signed free agent Tomi Mrcela to provide more depth this month, it did not help as they conceded four against Newcastle on the weekend. The loss to the Jets means Perth must beat Brisbane Roar to avoid an A-League Men’s record 19th straight winless game, but Zdrilic said he was not focusing on the unwanted milestone. I take every game as it comes, and we know we’re in a difficult situation. We know we’re rebuilding a lot here,” he said. “We know we’re in a difficult period, but for us, we just focus on the next game; we reset. “We’ve taken minor steps forward in some of the games that we’ve played, Adelaide being a really positive one for us, we just haven’t been able to keep building on it, and then we keep getting a slap in the face. “We have to focus on we have done good things, nowhere near enough, but we have to keep resetting and being positive.”