Marko Rudan is vowing to fight fire with fire as Western Sydney Wanderers bid to arrest their erratic A-League Men form against Melbourne City.
City will travel to CommBank Stadium on Friday night to face the Wanderers in the competition's inaugural Unite Round.
Even though the venue is the Wanderers' traditional homeground, Aurelio Vidmar's side have been installed as favourites on the back of an unbeaten run of six games and 17 goals.
The Wanderers have not strung back-to-back wins together since November as injuries, suspension and national team call-ups have prevented Rudan from getting his strongest side on the park.
The two sides met at the same venue at similar time last year with the Wanderers successfully parking the bus and claiming a backs-to-the-wall 1-1 draw.
But Rudan insists he has no intention of replicating that tactic in 2024.
"We're going to go for it, that's us," Rudan told AAP.
"Last year was last year and I think we have made really good progressions as a football club.
"It's a different team with a different way of playing with more young players getting their opportunities.
"Nothing changes in terms of how we approach games.
"We want to be on the front foot, we want to dictate, dominate and control the game and that's exactly what we want to do on Friday night."
Rudan will hand fourth-choice goalkeeper Taiga Harper a spot on the bench with Lawrence Thomas on international duty with the Socceroos.
No.2 Jack Gibson succumbed to a knee injury in last week's warm-up with Daniel Margush taking the gloves in the 1-0 loss to the Central Coast Mariners.
Despite their up-and-down form, Rudan's side still sit in third spot and could climb into second with a win over City. "
"The last two goals that we've conceded have come from outside the box so we need to be better in that department," Rudan said.
"But when you look at shots on goal or entries into the box, last week it was three or four times more than the opposition did so that clearly tells me there's a lot of good things that we're doing from back to front.
"The last three or four weeks have been very sound and very solid.
"It's unfortunate the results haven't matched that or we haven't gotten what we deserved because I thought last week we didn't deserve to lose either."
