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Perth Glory's clean-sheet drought has extended to nine matches this season and they face a battle to end the rot against the high-flying Wanderers on Friday.

Perth Glory coach Richard Garcia says more patience is needed with his team's new-look defence, stating it's still too early to demand clean-sheet performances.

Glory are yet to keep a clean sheet this A-League season, with the team conceding an average of 2.2 goals across their nine games.

Perth's defence will face another huge challenge when they take on the high-flying Wanderers at Bankwest Stadium on Friday night.

Western Sydney are coming off a 4-3 win over the Phoenix and will fancy their chances against a Glory outfit who are winless in their past three games.

Glory's defence underwent a complete overhaul during the off-season, with Darryl Lachman, Dane Ingham, Kosuke Ota, Josh Rawlins, Nick Sullivan and Jonathan Aspropotamitis among the players used this year.

Central defender Osama Malik has played just 62 minutes this season due to a shoulder injury.

Garcia said the defensive unit simply needed more time to gel.

"We've virtually got a brand new back four. That takes a longer while to come together," Garcia said.

"We've got to be a little bit more patient with that and try to focus more on that side as well.

"We've got to try to grow this defensive line over the next two or three months. We've got to make small improvements.

"It can't be just, 'We've got to get a clean sheet'.It's going to be a process."

Glory have dominated possession in most of the games they have played this season, but have regularly been caught napping on the counter-attack.

Garcia said his players needed to be more switched on even when they have the ball.

"(We need to work on) the concentration and the defensive aspect of being ready to defend when we're on attack," Garcia said.

"A lot of teams are trying to catch us on the counter and at times we are giving goals away that we probably shouldn't concede."

Former Bundesliga defender Sebastian Langkamp, who recently fractured his wrist, will be held back from contact training drills for another two weeks.

STATS THAT MATTER

*Glory have lost only one of their past 12 A-League games against the Wanderers (W6, D5) and have won the past three in succession.

*The Wanderers have had nine shots from fast breaks this season, three more than any other team via this method.

*Glory boast the best shot conversion rate (18.4 per cent) of any team this season - nearly double the rate of the Wanderers (9.3 per cent)

Stats provided by Opta