Nagai showed genuine attacking intent when he came off the bench against Victory on the weekend and came close to an injury-time equaliser when his shot cannoned off the crossbar.

Glory have the worst attack stats in the league and Harnwell expects to see more of the 21-year-old as his former club attempts to claw their way back from eighth place into finals contention.

“(Perth) haven’t had that X-factor in the last few games to pull something out when they really need it,” said the Fox Sports commentator.

“When you look at players like Nagai and Travis Dodd who can provide that sort of thing - there just hasn’t been enough of it.

“Nagai’s had a lot of niggling injuries but he has certainly got the pace and skills to provide something.

“You’d think he’d probably take a more prominent role over the next couple of weeks given there’s going to be players missing through suspension and injuries and they need to get him up to 90 minutes of game time.

“They need him being sharp enough with all the step overs and tricks in the 90th minute as he is in the first.”

Nagai has been used more sparingly than fans would like, the club coming under fire for failing to blood many of their talented youngsters who have been overlooked in favour of campaign veterans.

Jesse Makarounas, 18, is the latest to jump ship in favour of game time under Ange Postecoglou’s Melbourne Victory and Harnwell believes he could prove a big loss for the Perth outfit.

“He’s a very exciting talented young player and he hasn’t seen the game time he probably expected to when he joined the club,” he said.

“He’s going to a coach and club that prides itself on bringing through young players and developing young players.

“Ange has obviously seen something pretty exciting in the kid. It’s disappointing to lose a Perth-born talent but if he’s not going to get football here then he’s got to look after himself and go elsewhere.”

Glory face a near must-win match against the equally desperate fallen champs, Brisbane Roar on Saturday – and with the old guard failing to get the job done Ferguson may be forced to make some bold selections.

“There’s not been as many young players come through that I suppose the fans would like to see,” Harnwell added.

“Especially over in Perth, they like to see good local talent coming through and unfortunately we don’t really have that in the Glory squad at the moment.

“Part of that’s probably to do with Fergie not having security of long term deal and not being able to implement a long-term plan.

“He is having to rely on his experienced players and the ones that have done the business for him in the past. It would be difficult to try and blood young players when you are under pressure and you’re in tough situations.

“But it’s certainly something that needs to be rectified. The majority of players throughout the team are starting to get a little bit older – every now and then an injection of youth and enthusiasm can be a positive thing.”

Glory have scored just 18 goals this season. With Billy Mehmet released and striker Shane Smeltz lacking his usual clinical touch in front of goal, the Perth outfit is short of options up front.

Nonetheless Harnwell, a veteran of 256 Glory games, said the players are confident of earning a finals berth.

“They obviously recognise they’ve not continued the early season form that they had but they also think they’re not too far away from turning it around either,” he said.

“They’ve been playing well in patches, they’ve created chances but just haven’t been able to score and there’s been some very costly defensive lapses as well.

“They’re still positive that they can get in the finals and once they get there they’re always a chance as every team is.”