Sebastien Pocognoli explains half-time Scotland tweak and 'fantastic' performer who caught his eye

A new-look Scotland side produced a bleak first half in Ljubljana and were fortunate not to fall behind as they struggled to adapt to the changes brought in by the new head coach. However, a tweak to the system at half-time saw Scotland emerge as the dominant side after the break with a number of big chances spurned to get the Belgian off to a winning start.

Pocognoli, however, took encouragement from the full 90 minutes.

"I think we had two games in the same game, but you can analyse both of them in a positive way," he told BBC Scotland.

"First half was not what we expect in terms of how secure we were in the press. Actually, we were surprised by the formation of Slovenia but at half-time we fixed this straight.

"And you can see that that second half was much better. We produced what we want to show every minute.

"But in the first half we learned to stick together, to defend the box, to be resilient and to be patient to change the game.

"We were also challenged in our set pieces. After five minutes we had many set pieces to defend, so that's the positive way to look at the first half that was not always positive.

"The second half we had more on the ball against a low block. We had a lot of good movement through the side, over the wall and through the lines and we should have scored to be honest.

"The counter press was good, the high [line] of the defence was good. Just because the position of the players was better. A clean sheet is also positive. We want to win but we can take this positively."

Pocognoli sent his team out in a 3-4-1-2 system that was the hallmark of his time in charge of Union Saint-Gilloise and Monaco.

He explained his half-time change involved moving Billy Gilmour "lower on the pitch" and dropping striker Oli McBurnie into a slightly deeper area with both players becoming more heavily involved in the second half.

"We were a little bit more compact to regain the ball when we lost it," he explained. "That also created some imbalance in the defence of Slovenia where we could go through the lines with a good chance, or with some crosses. The second half was much better, you could feel our supporters were really behind us and I hope in the next game we can produce this."

In his first Scotland appearance in five years, McBurnie was guilty of missing a gilt-edged chance early in the second half when he attempted to dribble past Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak in a one-on-one. Substitute Kieron Bowie also passed up a glorious opening in the latter stages, firing wide with just the Atletico Madrid number one to beat, while Robbie Ure also came close netting on his debut with Scotland's only attempt of the first half, striking the outside of the post with a low drive.

"Defenders are all really happy because they had the clean sheet, and it's also a big part of football to be so strong like we were so high on the pitch," Pocognoli said. "The strikers had some good chances with Robbie, Kieron and Oli and actually the best thing is to create these chances. We are just to be positive and say the next one is in.

"Sometimes you have a lack of freshness because of the hard work of Oli to regain the ball, to be also hard in the pressing. It's part of the process. We have to be positive. We can miss a chance, but we have to move on and support each other."

Napoli midfielder Gilmour produced an eye-catching display for Scotland in his first match for the national team since missing the World Cup with an injury picked up in the warm-up win over Curacao.

"He's a fantastic player," gushed Pocognoli. "I really like him. He's really the type of player we miss in modern football - creative players who look always forward, always ready to find solutions with a clear game plan, also a good presence around the box and very good defensively. We are happy that he is back and we can move on with this good performance."