Coach Ernie Merrick is managing his team carefully after draining wins over Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United and said he's got every confidence his tweaked team is strong enough to defeat the league leader in Perth.
A win will leapfrog the second-placed Phoenix to the top of the table and Merrick has every expectation it will deliver, despite two losses to Glory earlier this season.
"We're definitely in with the attitude we want to win," he said.
"It's not a patch-up team, it's a good team and there's no excuses for not playing attacking football, better than we played against Adelaide."
Burns has 12 goals to his credit this season, second behind Marc Janko's 13 on the A-League's golden boot standings, but a hip niggle has Merrick erring on the side of caution.
New signing Joel Griffiths, who has 38 A-League goals to his credit and scored in last week's 2-0 win over Adelaide United, is expected to slot in up front.
Vince Lia, who made a solid contribution off the bench against Adelaide, looks a likely replacement for Rodriguez, who is resting a tight hamstring.
Merrick says Perth presents a real challenge and although the loss of midfielder Mitch Nicholls through suspension is a blow, it has depth to cover in players such as ex-Newcastle Jets skipper Ruben Zadkovich.
"Perth play a 4-1-4-1 formation, very defensive in their own half," Merrick said.
"They drop back and make it very difficult to get through their lines, and they're a good counter-attacking team."
Irish striker Andy Keogh, who has 10 goals for the season, has proven an invaluable acquisition and Merrick rates teenage striker Daniel da Silva highly.
"They've got a good midfield and they're hard to break down - they don't concede many goals," he said.
"We can cope with the travel, we can cope with the heat. There's no excuses."
