This week, Scotland played their first two matches in the Nations League, drawing against Slovenia and conceding to Switzerland.
Despite their results, there are a few good takeaways from Pocognoli’s team in their first match.
Against Slovenia, the first half of the match seemed like a struggle, but during the second half, Pocognoli made crucial changes leading to dominance from the Scots. They even had the potential to win the game, but ultimately never got a shot in to make it happen.
The biggest change in Pocognoli’s strategy compared to former coach Steve Clarke’s was the fact that Scotland played far more offensively. Pocognoli has stated that his style is to “be a little higher up the pitch,” and with their 3-5-2 lineup, they certainly showed an improvement in keeping the pressure on Slovenia.
However, the feelings of optimism for Scotland fans was short-lived.
The team’s performance against Switzerland was certainly one to be forgotten. Starting off with an early red card by Jack Hendry, the Scots were immediately put into an uphill battle. They played with ten men for 80 minutes, but even that was no excuse for their poor performance.
They were dominated in every aspect of the game, conceding three goals to the Swiss with Pocognoli even earning himself a yellow card out of frustration.
The Scots only held possession 28 per cent of the time, and the Swiss gave Pocognoli a strong reminder of the various issues on his team. Perhaps if the Scots had eleven men their performance would have shown more potential.
Nevertheless, one loss is not the end of the world for the Scottish team. Rangers defender Nathan Patterson expressed his hopefulness for the future for the Scots: “There’s a lot of new faces, staff, players. We’re all still trying to figure out each other. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
The future for the Scotland national team under Pocognoli is still unknown, with both promising and less promising moments shown during their first two matches. With upcoming matches against North Macedonia and later Slovenia, fans across the nation are eager to see the team taking a stronger shape under Pocognoli.
Photo by Andrew Dawes on Unsplash
