Sebastien Pocognoli believes Scotland ‘click’ is coming for player who served up a curate’s egg at Hampden
Head coach insists Scotland squad has the quality to play his preferred system
After 12 games so far, from Liverpool to Ljubljana, from Miami to North Macedonia, the ‘No Scotland, no party’ world tour of 2026 grinds into St Gallen on Monday for one final performance.
What a 12 months it’s been. Scotland at least managed to avoid going a whole calendar year without winning a competitive game at Hampden by narrowly overcoming North Macedonia in the Nations League on Friday night.
It’s a small triumph considering Scotland were hoping to make history a few months ago by qualifying for the second stage of a major tournament for the first time. So this is where we are, which is where exactly? Wrestling with a system that looks increasingly unsuited to Scotland. Rather than freeing them up, which was Sebastien Pocognoli’s manifesto when he took over, his preferred 3-4-1-2 formation seems to have put the players in a straitjacket. The idea was to play ten yards further forward. Instead, Scotland appear to be going backwards in every sense.
They nevertheless have the chance to end the international year with a truly eye-popping result if they can beat Switzerland, already confirmed as Group B1 winners. It is the 13th match in a year where Scotland have played teams from five of the six FIFA confederations. Six of the matches, including Monday, have been against teams in the top 20 of the Fifa rankings. This perhaps explains the unexceptional total of just five wins, two of them friendlies.
Scotland need another victory on Monday and must hope Slovenia don’t take three points their trip to North Macedonia to finish in the top two and earn a promotion chance via the play-offs this Spring. It’s been a challenging as well as often very memorable year.
The danger is Scotland are already all played out, no one more so than Andy Robertson. No one except Kenny Dalglish has appeared as many times for Scotland as the skipper. Robertson has survived the risk of suspension and will become Scotland’s most capped ever player when, fitness permitting, he lines up on Monday.
Ryan Christie came on for his 75th cap on Friday, while Kieran Tierney, if selected, will earn cap No. 60 against Switzerland. Scott McTominay, meanwhile, will hit the 75-mark.
No one’s getting any younger. But Pocognoli seems determined to keep faith with a system that demands dynamism.
“I think we need to rest well,” he said. “That is the first thing. If we want to play like this we need energy. I will need to consider the best approach for the game regarding the quality and also the fitness of some players. We have some players in the squad who we have to manage. They cannot play two games in a row.”
Aaron Hickey might be one of those, hence him being named among the substitutes for the supposedly less testing fixture against North Macedonia. If he comes back into the side against Switzerland what does that mean for Ben Gannon-Doak? The winger featured at right wing-back and once again produced a curate’s egg of a performance. Good in parts, including when he won Scotland’s match-winning penalty (although even that was after he had taken a poor touch).
The focus and indeed expectation placed on him seems completely unreasonable, although he possibly hasn’t helped himself. It’s what happens when you are named man of the match for Bournemouth in a 3-0 Europa League win over AC Milan.
But this does not mean there's been an overnight cure for the imperfections that dog the player, understandably so given he’s only just turned 21. Pocognoli believes things will “click” for him in time. The right choice will suddenly become his instinctive reaction. The final ball will become a weapon rather than his Achilles heel. “We know that he needs to improve on the end product,” said Pocognoli. “But he created a penalty and against Slovenia and North Macedonia away he created a number of unbelievable one v ones. He did that (on Friday) as well.
“I believe in one moment he will have a click about decision making. I believe if he is playing every game he can make (better) decisions….. he knows that he only has to play a game every two weeks sometimes he can (over)think, ‘This is my moment.’ It is a process. He will become older and will at some point become relaxed in his decision making.”
Whether Gannon-Doak ever achieves his potential might hinge on playing where he ought to be playing, which is as an out-and-out winger. At present, Pocognoli’s preferred formation won’t accommodate this. It’s unlikely that the Belgian is going to change his ways ahead of Monday, when Scotland might really need three centre halves (even if one of them is really a full back).
Former Dundee defender Luke Graham’s assured performance aged just 22 surely means he will line up once more in the middle of defence.
“I have really scanned the quality of the squad and I believe we have the quality to play like this,” said Pocognoli. “I believe that Luke Graham can be important to the defence. “I believe Kieran Tierney can be good in that position. I believe that Ryan Porteous is helpful for how we want to play because he is on the front foot."
Pocognoli mentioned his adherence to a midfield 'box', where Billy Gilmour and Lewis Ferguson act as pivots. “We need speed if we want to use the box,” he said. “We have that with Ben, but we don’t have that unlimited specific quality.
“It is up to me to find the best way to play,” he added. “But it is not easy to bring players who come from different clubs with a different approach to fit into (the system) in two days. But we have a lot of players who play that way in Italy and other places. It has helped me a lot in the past.”
The past is history. Never mind Gannon-Doak, things need to start clicking sooner rather than later for Pocognoli.
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