Amy Gallacher Scouting Report At Celtic Women – Tactical Analysis

With Celtic Women finishing just short of their maiden Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL) 1 title in 2022/23 due to Glasgow City’s late winner against Rangers Women on the last day, the Airdrie-based club’s target for this season could not have been more straightforward; go one better.

With 14 wins from their opening 16 matches, which sees them sit second in the table and three points behind resurgent Rangers at the time of writing, they are firmly in the hunt for that elusive first league trophy.

They will be full of confidence about their chances of securing it.

Central to their strong form has been their goal tally, with them racking up 81 goals so far this season and topping the standings for that particular statistic (they currently have six more than Rangers and 37 more than Glasgow).

One player who has contributed in no small way to that has been Amy Gallacher.

Capable of playing as a midfielder or

at the time of writing.

She might be 25 years old now and far from a fresh face in the league.

Still, there is little doubt that Gallacher is going from strength to strength at the moment, and she is being rewarded for her form with a first call-up to the Scotland senior squad during the recent Women’s Nations League campaign.

This tactical analysis will examine why she has earned that recognition and how she has established herself as one of the best players north of the border

why she could be one to watch as 2024 goes on.

Amy Gallacher Attacking threat

Given that Amy Gallacher has consistently been one of the most potent finishers in the Scottish women’s game, it seems prudent to begin this scout report with an analysis of what makes her so dangerous inside the final third.

Many different qualities contribute to her prowess in this area of the pitch.

One of those is her ability not to overthink situations and to trust her instinct whenever the ball is in her vicinity.

She is always aware of what is happening around her and knows how she can positively affect proceedings.

Here, the ball is on the other side of the pitch, and she has noticed how teammate Jenny Smith, who joined in the summer from Hearts Women, is drifting infield to offer a central, shorter passing option.

However, she also recognises that the Hamilton Academical Women players are following her and looking to block any routes she might have to run behind them.

Therefore, to ensure that Celtic will still have a way of progressing the ball behind the defenders, she makes a more direct run up the pitch between Hannah Coakley and Chloe Muir and opens up another front.

The result is that Hamilton now can’t focus solely on Smith and has two potential targets to mark.

By doing so, though, they have to split their numbers, which means that Celtic has a greater chance of succeeding in breaking through them.

The speed at which Gallacher goes through this thought process makes her so dangerous in these areas of the pitch.

It is always clear that she never doubts herself and always trusts that she will succeed in aiding her team with her movement.

On this occasion, everything worked out as she had hoped, with neither Coakley nor Muir able to get back and her able to receive the longer pass and run-through to test her luck.

Although the goal may not have come this time, she certainly gave Hamilton a scare.

This is not the only time that she has found herself the key attacking threat for her side.

However, there have been times when Gallacher has yet to be able to break through opposing defensive lines in that manner due to the opposing side retaining an organised shape and working hard to stay between the ball and the goal.

The season opener at newly promoted Montrose Women was one of those matches, and it was clear from the early stages that Gallacher needed to find another way of creating options inside the final third and giving herself opportunities to shoot at goal.

As a result, she often feigned runs behind the back line before dropping back into the gaps created between the Montrose ranks, just as has happened here with Kayleigh Brough and Erin Ross manipulated into dropping back and leaving space open ahead of them for Gallacher to position herself in.

Whilst the chance didn’t come off here for the Celtic player, with Brough deflecting her effort wide, the critical thing highlighted in her game here is her adaptability because the different situations highlighted so far in this section show how she can both play on the shoulder and stay in front of defensive lines and have an effect in both.

Therefore, this undoubtedly has to be factored into the equation when considering why she has been such a key player for the Celtics, regardless of the type of game they are in.

This is perhaps why Celtic’s opponents have placed such a huge emphasis on marking her out of games as the SWPL 1 campaign has gone on.

Defenders pick her out time and time again, looking to ensure that she never has time to control the ball and to pick out either a pass or a shot on goal.

Yet Celtic have shown, as the season has gone on, that they have key tactics that have enabled them to bring her back into their games and force opposing sides to leave her open to make those aforementioned runs into dangerous areas.

The match against Hibernian was one of those when this was most prominent.

Grant Scott’s side set up with an organised back line and stayed compact around Gallacher, meaning that they should have a chance of winning the ball early if it arrived at her feet.

However, to negate this, Celtic have looked to use the wings to force the Hibernian players apart.

They favour a wing-back formation as they try to take full advantage of the additional space afforded to them in the wide channels.

In this case, that wide threat is shown by striker Kit Loferski and left wing-back Shen Menglu teaming up on the far side of the field against defender Joelle Murray, and the result is that Murray needs support from those inside her (Poppy Lawson, Leah Eddie and Mya Christie here) as she looks to stop Celtic in their tracks.

As this happens, though, the central protection around Gallacher gradually ebbs away, leaving her able to make a run between them and to get into the positions from which she can try her luck, and that happens here, too, as she gets behind the Hibernian players and ends up scoring after Menglu’s effort takes a deflection off Lawson on its way through to her.

There was perhaps an element of good fortune in this situation in that regard, but what was not lucky was the way Celtic created the gap and the way Gallacher played her role in helping the goal come about.

This shows once again the threat that she poses inside the final third.

Build-up play

As mentioned, though, Amy Gallacher is not just a striker but a midfielder, too, meaning that there are times when she is needed in deeper areas of the field as well as at the top.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t detract from her game and, in fact, allows her to demonstrate another side to it, proving again why she is such a good fit for Celtic’s system.

When watching Celtic play, it is evident that head coach Fran Alonso’s tactics have been influenced in no small part by his upbringing in his native Spain.

Elements of their one-touch passes, positional rotations, and general tiki-taka football brand are present in their performances.

Gallacher’s ability to make intelligent runs and read the game has been central to Alonso’s (who left the club to take over at NWSL side Houston Dash at the end of last year) successful implementation of this into the team.

She continually changes positions and works hard to take opponents away from her teammates, allowing them to make inverted runs into the spaces that she has opened up.

In this case, that is clear through the way that she moves towards Natalie Ross and offers her a shorter passing option whilst both Smith and right wing-back Paula Partido, who is on loan at the Excelsior Stadium this season from Real Madrid Femenino, get up the field and behind the Dundee United Women players.

Gallacher’s diagonal run here is also important to note because it allows Smith and Partido to move into different areas of the space that has been created, with the former cutting inside while the latter remains closer to the wing.

As a result, the ball can now move in two completely different directions once Celtic looks to move it up the field, which again makes it harder for Dundee to bring the opportunity to an early conclusion.

Graeme Hart’s side (who play their home games at Gussie Park, just across the road from the main club stadium of Tannadice) showed a lot of endeavour in this game.

It did keep Celtic quiet for periods, but moments like this were difficult for them to deal with.

There is no doubting the role that Gallacher played in breaking them open and ensuring that her side took all three points from this encounter as they looked to maintain their title challenge.

That is not the only time positional rotations involving Gallacher have been seen in Celtic’s matches, though.

There have also been instances when she and fellow forward Murphy Agnew have switched positions higher up the pitch, again looking to create spaces in the opposing back line that clever and accurate passes can then exploit.

In most matches, the two tend to line up in the forward line together, but they rarely stay that way.

It is more common for one of them to stay at the top of the field while the other drops back to connect the play.

With Agnew being a forward by trade, it is more likely that she offers the goal threat, especially since Gallacher has a reputation for moving the ball around the field and dictating play from further back.

However, they are the opposite way around here, with the intention of causing confusion amongst the Hamilton ranks.

This will result in the league’s bottom side once again leaving spaces open in their efforts to readjust. They are now unable to set up as they might have prepared to due to both players being in different positions from what they were perhaps expecting.

That theme of Gallacher doing what is least expected of her continues when she drops back and plays almost as a defensive midfielder at times when her team has possession.

This situation during the meeting with Motherwell Women demonstrates how far back she gets on occasion.

Here, she receives the ball directly from the back line before turning and finding the run of Menglu on the nearside wing.

It is not common for her to get this far back.

Still, it was necessary against Motherwell because Paul Brownlie’s side was trying to keep as many players behind the ball as possible.

Celtic needed someone with a strong range of passing and good control of the ball to ensure they could move the ball up the field without risking it being given away.

Given that Gallacher has constantly demonstrated that she is more than capable of executing long-range passes as well as shorter ones, either in transition or when inside the final third, and has registered a 78.5% passing accuracy so far this season, there is no doubt that she was the perfect player for this role.

This shows again how important she has been and will continue to be to Celtic’s title aspirations.

Defensive qualities

Whilst Amy Gallacher is clearly an attack-minded player by trade, she has also demonstrated her quality in defensive situations.

This has aided Celtic in their bid for a first-ever SWPL 1 title and allowed her to continue demonstrating different aspects of her game.

A key aspect of Celtic’s defensive play has revolved around pressing from the front and trying to win the ball as high up the pitch as possible, which is again a result of the energetic and front-footed brand of football that has been highlighted throughout this scout report.

When looking at how Gallacher fits into that, it comes down to her aforementioned ability to read what will happen and to react ahead of others on the field.

In this case, Motherwell are looking to play out from the back.

Jo Addie has shifted the ball towards Gill Inglis, who is on the right of the back three.

Gallacher is watching closely not only as the two combine here but also as Loferski moves across to prevent Inglis from passing up the field.

As a result of that movement, Gallacher knows that Inglis will shift the ball back across the field, and that will be her chance to press and regain possession for her team.

Sure enough, the ball is passed back to Addie, with Motherwell seemingly unaware of Gallacher’s intentions, and the result is that the Celtic attacker dislodges the ball and runs through to score a straightforward goal.

It is hard to disagree that defending in this manner is not one of her key strengths, given how often she has regained possession high up the field for her team

and seven dangerous recoveries during Celtic’s 16 league matches so far.

These numbers are not just possible due to luck or the ability to be in the right place at the right time.

That last situation highlighted how she was preparing early to win the ball back and was constantly aware of not just what was happening at each point but also what would happen next.

Her ability to win the ball so high up the field, as the graphic indicates that she has done on several occasions, is also important to note because that again fits with Celtic’s mantra as soon as they lose the ball.

The fact that she has been successful in 67.4% of her defensive duels as the season has gone on shows how she is just as important a player for her side when they don’t have possession as she is when they do.

However, it is not all about defending in advanced areas because there has occasionally been a need to defend in deeper areas, too, especially when opponents are counterattacking in the way that Montrose are here.

On this occasion, the ball finds its way out to Aimee Ridgeway, who has instantly been shut down by those Celtic players in her vicinity and is now trying to control the ball under pressure from her opponents.

As a result, fellow forward Charlotte Gammie has become a dangerous player to leave open.

She moved up the pitch to offer Ridgeway a way to keep the attack alive, and she is now a player who needs to be closed down if Celtic are to prevent Montrose from progressing the ball into their third here.

The player nearest to Gammie is Gallacher, and it would have been easy for her to stop running here and to leave it to one of those near Ridgeway to come across and tackle Montrose’s top scorer last season.

However, that thought never crossed her mind; instead, she worked hard and showed the same speed and determination in other areas of her game to get to the ball first and end Montrose’s counterattack.

It was a chance that could have led to a goal, and the only reason it didn’t was because of Gallacher tracking back here to make the all-important interjection, showing again why she is a critical player in Celtic’s squad and someone that they have come to rely on for so much during her time at Airdrie Park.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked at Celtic Women star Amy Gallacher, highlighting different aspects of her game and showing why she has been such a dependable player for her club as they look to go one better than last season and lift the SWPL 1 trophy for the first time in their history.

Given that she is already 25, it might seem strange to identify her as one to watch.

Still, there are specific reasons that she is just that, with her not only having arguably her best domestic campaign to date but also recently making her international debut when she came on for Tottenham Hotspur Women striker Martha Thomas against England at the Stadium of Light back in September.

Her first involvements with the national team may not have ended as she would have hoped, with Scotland enduring a frustrating Nations League campaign that ended in relegation to League B.

However, the Euro 2025 qualifiers commence in 2024.

Scotland will hope to reach the finals after missing out on a place at Euro 2022 and last summer’s World Cup.

Therefore, this could be a big year for her both domestically and internationally.

If things go her way, she could end this year with a top-flight title and a trip to Switzerland booked for next summer.

She clearly has the ability to secure both, and it will be interesting to keep an eye on how she gets on during the coming months for that reason.