The Dutchman identified Socceroo Jamie Maclaren and former national team midfielder Brett Holman as key threats.

He also spoke of his former City colleague, now counterpart John Aloisi, and a change of style.

While he admitted the 3-2 loss at home against Perth a fortnight ago provided a lesson against teams who sit back, no comparisons were made.

“I think the game against Perth was very good for us to learn from,” van’t Schip said.

“Brisbane want to attack more, they have different type of players, but they also drop in and want to make use of the speed of Maclaren and Holman who have gone beyond (Brandon) Borello and Oar, so they play different than they used to.

“(It’s) more possession based playing in the half of the opponent, but that’s not the case, at least not in the four games we’ve seen at this moment.

“They’re looking a lot for balls behind the defence and that’s something that Perth was doing as well, again they’re two different teams. We learn from that, so hopefully we can show that up in Brisbane.

“Their last four games have been a bit up and down, they’re also looking for a bit of consistency. They have quality in their team, (Thomas) Broich, Maclaren, Holman and Tommy of course.

“He gives everything in the period he’s playing, he’s still very mobile, fast and links up with Maclaren, so he’s a player we have to look after. They have to look after a lot of our players as well and we’re taking a very good consideration of where their strengths are but also looking at where we can punish them.”

Van’t Schip made it clear Dean Bouzanis is the no.1 goalkeeper after third marquee Nicolas Colazo picked up an injury in the season opener away to Wellington Phoenix.

He is out for at least another three weeks. 

Ivan Franjic is named in the squad after recovering from a heart inflammation with the Socceroo playing the majority of the youth game against Melbourne Victory behind closed doors last Saturday.

Van’t Schip said Socceroo star Tim Cahill would travel to Brisbane after recovering from Achilles soreness which kept him out from last week’s 2-1 win over Adelaide United.

Maclaren replaced the striker who who turns 37 in December.

Van’t Schip said he had had no contact with Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou although the staff had contacted the club’s medical department.

“Tim is in the squad so he’s been training the last two days, it’s my answer and with Ange, I understand they’re going to have a hard camp or a camp with a lot of sessions,” he said.

“I think what I heard is he wants Tim to prepare and make sure he plays games and gets into a rhythm because his rhythm has been a bit broken with his late arrival and then travelling with the Socceroos twice, so he needs more consistent training and playing.

“I think that’s the reason Ange gave and I think it’s good because Tim like every player needs more consistency and hopefully he can get a run of games.

“I think he didn’t show me (he’s disappointed), he’s focused on playing games and getting into good game fitness and all the other things will take care of itself, he told me he had a good talk with Ange and nothing to worry about.”

Van’t Schip’ weighed in on Victory 16-year-old Seb Pasquali who will join Ajax in the Dutch league. 

 “There’s a lot of competition, so it’s not that it’s going to be easy as to make sure he’s up to it especially it’s not always football,” he said.

“It’s always living in a different country, language, approach of training and competing with each other.

“It’s tough, it’s harder, but if you get through that it makes more complete as a player, he has to believe in his qualities, try to learn, listen and maybe even if he doesn’t make it, it’s a great school to improve as a player.

“From there on he can make a step to another club, but hopefully for him he can make a first team step to the team of Ajax. Again I don’t know him well enough to give an opinion.”