City take on fellow undefeated outfit Adelaide United on Saturday at Coopers Stadium in its first 'away' game of the 2017/2018 season.

City has three wins from the first three rounds, but Joyce is looking for more from his chargers.

“We know that we can play better than we did last week, but we ended up with three points,” he said.

“There’s times you have to be resilient in a season and we showed we did defend well. We want to be better with the ball, that’s put to bed now. We’re looking forward to a tough game in Adelaide.

“We’ve played them recently so we’ve got a bit of an idea to expect. We go there in a confident mood and we have to build on what we’ve had so far this season.”

The Reds have drawn with Wellington and Melbourne Victory, beaten Brisbane Roar and are through to the FFA Cup final.

Joyce has been impressed with Marco Kurz’s side, who sit fifth on the A-League ladder.

“We've seen them at close quarters, we're impressed with them as a group, impressed with the coach that they have as a man as well," the Englishman said.

"They've done very well so far. It will be a tough game, we've got no illusions about that. We're going to a team that's high on confidence, high on form - it's a good challenge for us."

Tim Cahill has yet to start for City this season, after being away on international duty, and the veteran striker is expected to remain on the bench for the Adelaide clash.

“Tim’s obviously had a fantastic career and he’s still got plenty more things to achieve in his career,” Joyce said.

“He’s just another player in the club and it’s the same for anyone else really.  Unfortunately he’s not really been involved in massive things for us because of the way it’s gone.

“The pre-season he was still away and he’s had a couple of campaigns with them [the Socceroos] that’s he been unavailable for our training and our games. I imagine it’s frustrating for him, frustrating for me and the group.

“But he’s been conducting himself and training well this week, that’s all you can ask of a player at any football club.