Sebastien Pocognoli's first home game as Scotland boss comes on Tuesday against Switzerland, and the first question at Hampden is not whether the shape works. It is whether Scotland can turn a decent attacking performance into goals after the 0-0 draw with Slovenia.

Pocognoli kept the three-centre-back structure in Slovenia, with Jack Hendry and Stephen Welsh flanking Scott McKenna, and Scotland still created four big chances and produced 2.16xG. They did that without scoring, which is why the new coach spent so much of the post-match talk on finishing.

“We had a lot of good movement through the side, through the lines and we should have scored to be honest,” Pocognoli said on bbc.co.uk. He also pointed to the work without the ball: “But the counter-press was good, the high [line] of the defence was good, just because the position of the players was better [in the second half].”

Scotland's attack still has to cash in

That balance is what makes the opening feel encouraging without being finished business. Scotland were solid enough to keep a clean sheet, and Pocognoli said that was positive, but he also made the point that “we want to win.”

The missed moments were obvious enough. Oliver McBurnie and Robbie Ure both passed up chances against Slovenia, while Ben Gannon-Doak and Kieron Bowie were the only substitutes used. Pat Nevin described Ure as “elegant” and “effortless” on BBC commentary, which at least suggests Scotland had more than one forward showing for the ball.

Switzerland arrive after a strong opening

The table pressure is already real, even this early. Scotland sit second with one point, while Switzerland are top after opening with a 3-0 win over North Macedonia.

That gives Tuesday a fairly simple shape. Scotland have kept the structure Pocognoli wanted, and the numbers from Slovenia say the chances were there, but the job now is to turn that into a result against a side that already looked sharper in front of goal. The Scotland vs Switzerland game at Hampden will tell us more about the attack than the draw in Slovenia did.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →