Phoenix announced the signing of ex-Brisbane Roar attacking midfielder Litfin on Thursday morning, taking the club’s squad to 22 players.

“We’ve now got 22 signed and we’ll save the 23rd for January and see if we need a player then due to injury or suspension,” Merrick said.

“I don’t think you can ever have enough goal scorers.

“Now we’ve got a pretty solid defence with back-up.

“We’ve got a well-rounded team that I think will challenge any team in this league now.

“We’ll aim for the top four and I think we’ll do that.”

Merrick more pressing concern is the fitness of his New Zealand internationals who have spent the past week in the United States facing the hosts and Mexico in friendlies.

Andrew Durante, Kosta Barbarouses, Louis Fenton, Matthew Ridenton and Michael McGlinchey have all been added to the Nix squad which faces Perth Glory away on Sunday.

The quintet will travel straight to Perth from the United States, before being assessed upon their arrival on Friday.

 “We should have a very strong squad,” Merrick said.

“The key players we missed last week (in the 1-0 loss to Melbourne City) was obviously the centre of defence, so having Andrew Durante back is really important.

“We created numerous goal scoring opportunities which we didn’t score. Kosta Barbarouses is available and hasn’t played many minutes at all.

“They’re the two key players to get back.

“We’ve got last week’s team plus Michael McGlinchey, so we’re actually looking very strong for the Perth game.”

Merrick said McGlinchey, who put in two 90-minute shifts, was the biggest doubt, although all players would need to be assessed.

“That’s the discussion we’ll have between the physiotherapist, myself and Mikey,” he said.

“We’ll take extra players just in case. Alex Rodriguez covered really well for him last weekend.”