Sébastien Pocognoli hopes a “smiling” Billy Gilmour will be central to Scotland’s hopes of improvement following a bruising World Cup. Gilmour excelled in the second half on Saturday, as Pocognoli’s debut as manager ended in a goalless away draw against Slovenia in the Nations League. The Napoli midfielder missed the World Cup, where the Scots exited at the group stage, through injury.
I need to make sure that he finds his smile on the pitch and he was smiling after the game. I saw the Billy from Brighton in Slovenia. At Napoli it is a little bit different, it is more thinking about off the ball.
But when he can play he is smiling. He will make mistakes, he played bad passes against Slovenia. But he has to take the risks to play like that to see his qualities.
If he can do that, the rest will come. I remember him well when he was in Brighton. I thought he was fantastic for them.” Scotland trained on Monday at Hampden instead of their standard base next door, with Pocognoli keen to familiarise new members of his squad with the venue.
Pocognoli has also warned players not featuring regularly for their clubs that it will become increasingly difficult to win a place in his Scotland squads. Ben Gannon-Doak, Ryan Christie and Aaron Hickey are among key members of Pocognoli’s group who have had restricted domestic minutes this season. While the Belgian is comfortable with that scenario for now, that is likely to change by the time Euro 2028 qualifying begins next year.
Billy has played in recent weeks since the Champions League has started. So the teams will start to rotate. What concerns me is when March comes.
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