ANGE Postecoglou has spent the past four years being grilled about the wisdom of his attack-orientated tactics and asked by the media if it might be sensible for his Celtic and Spurs sides to adopt a less idealistic approach.
There appears little prospect of the Greek-Australian’s fellow Antipodean manager Melissa Andreatta being subjected to the same line of questioning in the seasons ahead on the evidence of her first game in charge of the Scotland women’s team.
Andreatta, the former Matildas assistant who succeeded Pedro Martinez Losa in April, saw her new side suffer a narrow 1-0 defeat to Austria at Hampden on Friday night and suffer relegation from the top tier of the Nations League as a result.
But the hosts’ late fightback – they created a number of scoring chances in the closing stages of their penultimate Group A1 fixture and were unfortunate not to net a late equaliser in – was impressive.
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The way those late opportunities were created perhaps gave the supporters who were in attendance a taste of what Andreattaball will be like.
Glasgow City goalkeeper Lee Gibson, who pulled off a string of important saves during the course of the 90 minutes and was deservedly named Player of the Match following the final whistle, has certainly noticed a definite shift in emphasis since the 46-year-old has come in.
Gibson, who is set to win her 62nd cap for her country in the meeting with the Netherlands in Tilburg on Tuesday evening, acknowledged that some fans, who were used to their heroes playing a patient and possession-based game under Losa, might consider going direct to be “not pretty”.
However, the 33-year-old very much approves of the change and is optimistic that it will help Scotland, who are currently on a desperately disappointing six game losing and seven match winless run, to end their slump in form and become more competitive before they launch their bid to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil in 2027.
“I would say in the first camps we have been in with the new manager we have been a little bit more direct,” she said. “I think before we played a lot and the build was certainly under pressure. Previously, we tried and keep the ball in the defensive half a lot more than maybe we needed to.
“You can be just as effective being direct. It can take two or three passes and suddenly you're in the other half. We need to try and make sure that when we do build, and we are capable of doing it, we're not putting ourselves into bother and trouble. That is probably something that we've done in the past.
Gibson continued, “Football's ever-changing. You might have a style of play which means you want to try and keep the ball. But ultimately you need to try and score goals. If that means being direct then so be it. It's easier to get up there.
“We’ve been working under Pedro for quite a few years. So we have probably tried to play the same way even though there has been a change of manager because it is what you have known. But new coaches will bring fresh ideas and different squad selections and you have to adapt.
“Sometimes being direct is actually the easiest way to get higher up the park. On Friday night we were able to go down the side a couple of times. Within two passes, we were in behind their back line. People might say it's not as pretty, but it's just as effective.”
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Andreatta, who admitted she is looking for her charges to be more competitive in their personal duels against the Dutch in midweek, was heartened by Gibson’s personal display and envisages the goalkeeper having a key role to play in her Scotland side going forward.
“Lee made some big saves to keep the game competitive,” she said. “She also activated our vertical game, which is an area we want to improve. We don’t want to keep possession for possession’s sake, we want to actually break lines more often. She was a part of that as well.
“I saw more of that ability to break lines in the second half against Austria, get into good areas in the final third and create chances from there. That's something we want to keep building on. We will keep reinforcing the position we want from our team in order to get into good areas.”
