Sebastien Pocognoli confident the goals will flow for Scotland sooner rather than later

Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli insists he has no concerns about a lack of goals after his team fluffed their lines in a 0-0 draw away in Slovenia.

In his first match at the helm, Pocognoli’s side struggled initially but were totally dominant in the second half of their Nations League clash in Ljubljana.

The Scots wasted several gilt-edged chances as they failed to turn their superiority into what would have been a deserved victory.

Setting up with a 3-4-1-2 system, the strike pairing of Oli McBurnie and Robbie Ure both had excellent opportunities to score.

Kieron Bowie and Aaron Hickey also went close in a second half which saw Scotland batter their hosts.

Slovenia and Atletico Madrid keeper Jan Oblak thwarted some of their efforts, most notably on two occasions from McBurnie.

In the end, the Scots were left to rue their profligacy. But Pocognoli was determined to take the positives from a much-improved showing in the second half.

‘I believe that maybe we should score in the second half, but I always think that maybe there is some reason why we don’t,’ said the 39-year-old Belgian.

‘I don’t want to make a big topic about the missing of chances. That can happen. But what the offensive players delivered also in terms of pressing was maybe more than they have done before. So maybe they missed some freshness in the last movement.

‘Yes, we should have scored but we are happy about the general performance. The strikers were the last detail today.’

Asked about how the players felt afterwards, Pocognoli continued: ‘The last feeling in the dressing room after the match was positive because we had a good second half.

‘We faced what we expected, a really aggressive Slovenia team, but we were a little bit surprised about the shape.

‘It looked like a back five but it was actually a back four when they were on the ball. Because of that we really struggled to find a way to press so we were quite deep and low on the pitch.

‘That meant we suffered. But what we learned from the first half was that we had to defend the box well — to be resilient and to just suffer together.

‘I think it’s nice to have a moment like this also, when a new gaffer starts. We conceded a lot of set pieces that we had practised for.’

Scotland were poor in the first half. There was no tempo to their play and they looked disjointed with and without the ball.

But the second half was night and day in comparison to the opening 45 minutes, with Billy Gilmour playing a key role in dictating the team for Scotland.

It was notable that the Scots were playing 10 yards higher up the pitch and showing much more aggression energy in the way they pressed Slovenia.

Asked about what changed, Pocognoli said: ‘At half-time, we adjusted one or two things and we were much better with two 6s and two 10s.

‘We fixed the position of Billy Gilmour to be a little bit lower and to have Oli McBurnie a little bit more in his box, and we were more compact to regain the ball when we lost it.

‘Also, that creates some imbalance in the defence from Slovenia, where we can go through the lines with a good chance of Billy or through the depth with the chance of Kieron Bowie or with some crosses.

‘Yes, he [Gilmour] is a fantastic player, I really like him. He’s a creative player who always looks forward, always ready to find a solution with a clear game plan, also a good presence around the box and also very good defensively.

‘We are happy that he’s back, and we can move on also with his good performance. It helped us to press higher up the pitch and was better for the counter-press because we were not running everywhere.

‘In my opinion, it was a very good second half. We created chances that we maybe should have to score. I could see the players enjoyed the second half. At the end, it’s a clean sheet and that’s also positive for the defenders.

‘But I hope we can produce in the next game what we produced in the second half today. First half, we learned to stick together, to defend the box, to be resilient and to be patient to change the game.

‘In the end, a clean sheet, that’s also positive, but we want to win. I think we can take this positively.’