When Matildas head coach Tony Gustavsson was hired back in 2020, he arrived with a reputation as being the tactical "brain" behind the Women's World Cup-winning US women's national team.
Having assisted Jill Ellis for a number of years, the coaching duo were almost seen as two hemispheres of the same mind: Gustavsson with the strategies, Ellis with the people management.
Indeed, one of the most-watched videos of the Swede on YouTube speaks directly to this idea. In it, Gustavsson is leaning over a whiteboard, on which is outlined a football field with 22 coloured magnets set out in a particular pattern.
