"It's very nice from the media after three or four rounds that they've already decided that the Roar is Barcelona, the Fury will win the championship, and two weeks ago Perth was a certainty to sweep everyone aside."

"I remember last year Hull City was leading the English Premiership, and where are they now? Second from the bottom," he said.

United are without a goal in three matches at home this season, and new recruit Bruce Djite is yet to prove himself a like-for-like replacement for Shane Smeltz, but Bleiberg insists circumstances have been stacked against them, and better form is right on the horizon.

Culina, toiled hard for no reward against the Mariners, and at times looked to be playing a loan hand for the home side, yet he wasn't about to put in any complaints, advising people to wait and see how United's forwards meshed after some consistent time together.

"I wasn't that frustrated," said Culina.

"It's only the second time (Bruce Djite and I) have played together and I think we did some really good combinations."

"It's going to take time, these kind of partnerships don't just happen overnight and I think we've still got Joel Porter to come back so he'll just add to the danger up front."

"I think we've got enough fire-power up front."

After two bye-rounds in the opening five weeks of competition the Gold Coast have played three times fewer than some of their A-League rivals, but their leisurely schedule is now behind them and they now face the challenge of a midweek clash with Newcastle.

With the Jet to play on Wednesday and a game in Sydney on Sunday, United's season has turned from a snooze to a sprint, and Bleiberg admitted the busy week ahead had impacted on tactical decisions against the Mariners.

"We had to do all the hard work to change (the game against Central Coast), and to change formations and try to break them," he said.

"On the top of that, my computer also had to think about Wednesday's game - not to burn players, who can play 80 minutes or 70."