Despite a limited preparation ahead of his United debut on Sunday, Djite surprised his coach with a brave performance in the club's first win of the campaign, a 1-0 victory on the road over Perth Glory.

Bleiberg admitted Shane Smeltz's departure to Turkey had left a hole in his side, but the coach believed his replacement, fringe Socceroo Djite, had allowed Gold Coast to stick with the same structure that proved successful last season.

"My excuse against Melbourne Victory," said Bleiberg referring to a 1-0 loss in Round 4 ahead of a bye. "Was that we didn't have forward line, we just have to play some kids.

"Smeltzy ran away to greener pastures and Joel Porter got injured in the same week and suddenly we didn't become the same team as last year, so it was a bit of a struggle.

"And here comes Bruce Djite. (He) trained for a week, hasn't played for four months, he wasn't even fit.

"But the moment you have someone that looked like a centre forward and you're surrounded with the team that we have, I think Gold Coast will have something to say in the A-League."

His side, however, did their talking on the pitch in front of a hostile 10,450 crowd at nib Stadium, and it was skipper Jason Culina speaking the loudest.

Culina opened the scoring in the 23rd minute and probably should have had a hat-trick to his name as he ballooned a good chance over the goal in the 29th minute before seeing a netted shot in the second half narrowly flagged offside.

The captain's efforts helped United get back on track after a frustrating start to the new season that's included two byes in the first five weeks, his coach saying the victory was vital in terms of his side gaining momentum ahead of two home games.

"You know what happens to coaches who start the season and finish winless, then I have to go and work in the mine shaft," Bleiberg joked.

"I think the way we played the first 60 minutes, we deserve what we get and hence Jason missed the other clear chance, it could have been 2-0 and then I would have got less grey hair."

Although Culina's efforts stood out, Bleiberg also praised the excellent work 20-year-old Ivory Coast youngster Adama Traore did down the left flank as he terrorised the Glory defence.

"The truth of the trick was originally, everybody thought that Adama would play as the left full back and (Steve) Pantelidis would play as the midfielder," Bleiberg said.

"We did a small trick and that's worked from our point of view. Adama, you know when you've got a good player he can play any position. In my book, he's a European bound player."

Bleiberg added: "The young guy (Scott) Neville is one of the best emerging players in the A-League.

"I think that he's also Socceroo bound and he should play in the Qantas Socceroos but today he got subbed and the reason that he got subbed, was 'cause of Adama."