Nations League: North Macedonia v Scotland Sebastien Pocognoli is still looking for his first win as Scotland head coach after a goalless draw in Slovenia and Tuesday's bruising 3-0 home defeat by Switzerland. The Belgian will, however, have high hopes as he takes his side to Skopje considering North Macedonia are the lowest-ranked side in Nations League Group B1 and have already lost to the Swiss and Slovenia. The 39-year-old had gone into his first, four-game international camp promising to give as many players as possible a chance to impress and on Tuesday made three changes from the opener in Ljubljana.
With Jack Hendry suspended after the centre-half's early red card against the Swiss, at least one change will be enforced against North Macedonia but what other alterations might Pocognoli make and who would you like to feature? Patterson still excited by two new team bosses New coach, new players, but same old failings hamper Scotland Hampden debut to forget but Pocognoli looks at bigger picture With Al-Ettifaq's Hendry missing out this time, might Pocognoli be tempted to abandon his preferred three-at-the-back system? That seems unlikely no matter if he thinks North Macedonia will revert to the two up front they had at home to Switzerland or go with one, as they did in Slovenia.
Pocognoli, one imagines, will be keen to give his system another chance to gel considering it effectively had to be abandoned after 10 minutes with Hendry's early dismissal against the Swiss. Swansea City's Stephen Welsh, who had started in Slovenia, came on as an early substitute on Tuesday, while Dinamo Zagreb's Scott McKenna has played the full 180 minutes over both games and neither have done their reputations any harm. Brondy's Luis Binks was handed his debut against the Swiss and he too did not look out of place.
However, Luke Graham has yet to make his Scotland debut so could this be an opportunity to blood Stoke City's 22-year-old summer signing? Aaron Hickey's injury record means the Brentford 24-year-old is not being risked over two matches in one week but he could return after being rested against the Swiss. Indeed, there was a clamour among the pundits on BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound for Hickey to be moved to right central defence, ostensibly to make space for flying winger Ben Gannon-Doak.
More of that later, but that would mean Torino's Nathan Patterson dropping out of the right wing-back spot after a difficult night against the talented Swiss forward line. On the other side of the park, captain Andy Robertson was replaced with Sassuolo's Josh Doig for the final 15 minutes of Tuesday's lost cause but it is unthinkable that the Tottenham Hotspur man will be handed any more rest in Skopje. That brings us on to the aforementioned Gannon-Doak.
The 20-year-old's frustrations at a lack of starting spots with Bournemouth have continued with Scotland under Pocognoli so far, but he helped the side improve their attacking threat as a substitute after the break in Slovenia. He then showed his willingness to track back and defend in a backs-to-the-wall second half against the Swiss. With the visit to Skopje being viewed as a must-win for Scotland's outside chances of finishing top ahead of the Swiss, or even second, Gannon-Doak's speed and trickery are being touted as essential to shoe into the starting line-up.
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