‘Football with a smile’: Pocognoli wants happy Gilmour to tee up Scotland success

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. “If you have a player who plays one touch without even looking where he puts the ball it means that he understands the game plan,” Pocognoli said of Gilmour before his Hampden Park bow against Switzerland on Tuesday evening.

“We don’t have a lot of players like this. Even Switzerland don’t. 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.

“I just want Billy to enjoy his football with a smile. 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. “It does not look old but you can feel the history,” he said.

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.

“I think Ben will get the games because Bournemouth have the Europa League,” Pocognoli said. “He will play, he will get time. 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. If the players aren’t playing a lot then we will struggle with the physical aspects of the game.

“The demands on the effort are massive. Right now it is OK because it is after pre-season. In November we will see. But we need to have players who have played.”