Perth Glory adamant club can cover the departure of Ljubo Milicevic Perth Glory are adamant they can cover the departure of player Ljubo Milicevic. Picture: Stephen Harman Source: News Limited PERTH Glory coach Alistair Edwards is adamant the club has the defensive depth to cover for the departure of Ljubo Milicevic a week out from the start of the A-League season. Milicevic's shambolic stay at Glory ended just six weeks after he was signed and earmarked to play alongside Socceroo Michael Thwaite in the heart of the Glory defence. The club severed ties with Milicevic this week following a series of training-ground spats with coaching staff and teammates. The loss of the towering centre-half means versatile veteran Steve Pantelidis looms as a critical piece of the puzzle, while youngsters Brandon O'Neill and Jack Clisby will be called on to step up. "We've got a really good culture and it was mutually agreed Ljubo wouldn't be a part of that," Edwards said. We're more than happy with the squad. Ljubo has been involved hardly at all in our pre-season. I think he's played only one-and-a-half games. Michael Thwaite is probably the best central defender in the country and Steve Pantelidis is one of the most underrated players. Glory will begin the new season at Adelaide United next Sunday, six months on from the galling 2-1 extra-time loss to Melbourne Victory in last season's finals series. Perth's starting XI for the opening match-day is likely to feature 19-year-olds O'Neill and Ryan Edwards as well as in-form Young Socceroos striker Jamie Maclaren, 20. Wonder kid Daniel De Silva, 16, is likely to be managed carefully early in the campaign. De Silva is in Kuala Lumpur with the Young Socceroos squad and won't return until Thursday. He is unlikely to fly with the squad to Adelaide and is set to be used off the bench in the early games, as Edwards eases him into the campaign. "We've just got to be mindful of the fact he's 16," Edwards said. He hasn't started a game in the A-League yet. He hasn't had the whole pre-season that everyone else has had. He had to come back from the (under-20) World Cup and catch up with a lot of school work, so he missed a good solid month of pre-season. There's no doubt he'll contribute to us moving through the season. Edwards would not reveal a benchmark for a successful season but conceded he would be disappointed if his re-built outfit missed the finals. "Really, it's too hard to predict," he said. That's how the league is designed, to be honest, in terms of the salary cap and the playing numbers. It makes it a very even competition and that's why it all goes down to consistency of performance. The versatility of our squad is going to be our strength. We've talked about a plan and we've got a plan moving forward. We'll be an improved team in a month's time than we are now. In six months' time we'll be even more improved, and so on in the ensuing years.