Don't mention genetics: Sebastien Pocognoli facing his own World Cup to win over Tartan Army
Four games in 11 days for new head coach and new-look squad
Nine years after one Scotland era ended in bitter disappointment in Ljubljana, a new one opens in the Slovenian capital.
Whatever happens in the Stadion Stozice on Saturday afternoon, Sebastien Pocognoli probably won’t be minded to mention “genetics”. Gordon Strachan triggered a national debate when he sat in the press room at the same stadium in 2017, having just witnessed Scotland’s faint World Cup qualifying hopes evaporate following a 2-2 draw with the hosts, and pondered why Scots can no longer compete physically with so many opponents.
“Genetically, we have to work at things,” he said, possibly saying out loud what he ought to be simply thinking. “Don’t know…maybe get big men and big women together and see what they can do.”
Whether the Scottish Football Association were ever successful in creating such unions, who knows? Certainly not enough time has passed for any progeny to be ready to answer new manager Pocognoli’s call. Someone else will get the benefit. It’s currently more about analytics than genetics, data as much as DNA.
Pocognoli’s own recruitment to replace Steve Clarke owed much to sporting intelligence. A company called Twenty First Group helped the SFA sift through over 40 candidates.
“Sebastien’s metrics matched what we believe is necessary to enhance and evolve from a position of strength,” said Craig Mulholland, the SFA’s chief football officer, when the Belgian was appointed to almost universal approval last month. Now the serious stuff is about to begin.
It won't be about AI or even xG when Scotland’s Nations League campaign kicks-off against Bostjan Cesar’s Slovenia. It’s about results – the only true testing ground for a manager, and one where Clarke tended to excel. Of course Pocognoli will be granted a honeymoon. How’s eleven or so days – and four games - sound?
It’s no slight on Clarke to say there already seems to be a lighter feel to the international camp. Change does that. It felt as though the majority of Scotland fans desired someone new in the dugout, for better or worse. Still, there will be a few doubletakes as the slim Belgian takes up position in the technical area in Ljubljana. That’s not Clarke?!
Of course, it’s all about how his team plays – will Pocognoli, who says he has already picked his starting XI, adopt his favoured back three system or carry on where his predecessor left off? Clarke seemed to have settled on a back four as a preference. Will the players be more aggressive, attacking on the front foot from the off and squeezing the pitch, as Pocognoli detailed was his ethos at his unveiling?
There are other less vital but nevertheless interesting behaviours to observe. He has already confirmed he will sing Flower of Scotland and has learned the words. How will he interact with fans? Will he be more demonstrative than Clarke? It would be difficult not to be.
Pocognoli will hope to emulate his predecessor's winning start against Cyprus in 2019.
Scotland left it late, Oli Burke tapping in after his header struck a post with two minutes left for a 2-1 victory. Clarke often mentioned having a screenshot of that first squad on his laptop. It helped remind him how far the team had come but also underlined how many of those involved that day remained important to him towards the end of his reign. Five of those who featured against Cyprus started Clarke’s final match seven years later against Brazil.
Pocognoli has ensured the Scotland squad is already evolving. He has done what many in the Tartan Army were urging and shaken things up, dropping the seemingly undroppable such as Lyndon Dykes and recruiting genuinely exciting prospects such as Robbie Ure.
He has also offered a fresh start to Oli McBurnie. Now at Hull City, the forward was at Sheffield United when he last played for Scotland and at Swansea City when he made his debut in 2018. It’s hard not to interpret McBurnie's recent comment that he is “a different person” as an admission that he is partly to blame for his five-year international exile.
It certainly wasn’t Clarke’s fault that the player blabbed about a private phone call he made to the manager about why he wasn’t being selected. That was just a few months ago. However, no one will be more motivated to make their mark. He has some unfinished business, including scoring a belated first goal after 16 appearances to date.
There were 28 players in the original squad. This was reduced by one when Kenny McLean and Kieran Tierney withdrew injured with only Kristi Montgomery, the Blackburn Rovers midfielder, drafted in. Young forwards James Wilson and Findlay Curtis have since dropped down to the Under-21s for Wednesday's important qualifier v Azerbaijan, a seemingly sensible and strategic decision that leans into a stated desire for more synergy between the teams, from the A side all the way down. Under-21s head coach Tony Docherty was in Spain this week.
Of the remaining 25 in the top squad, as many as 12, including eight uncapped players, did not go to the World Cup. There’s an undoubted freshness, helped by the presence of the likes of Luis Binks and Luke Graham.
In a way, Pocognoli faces his own World Cup. The upcoming schedule is actually more intense, with greater distances to travel between games. After spending several days in the sunshine in Murcia, the squad headed to Slovenia on Friday morning. It is a quick turnaround for Pocognoli’s Hampden bow against Switzerland on Tuesday night before it’s back on the plane again for North Macedonia next Saturday.
The unprecedented ‘double’ international break is then completed with the return match against the Slovenians on Tuesday week.
Just over 13 weeks after Scotland’s World Cup hit the buffers in Miami, fans with the stomach – and funds – for it are back on the road. It might be a mouthful but Sebastien Pocognoli’s Tartan Army already has a certain ring to it.
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