GLASGOW — Scotland surrendered a halftime lead to fall 2-1 to Slovenia in the Nations League at Hampden Park, a result captain Andy Robertson branded as being "outfought" and "not good enough." Ryan Christie gave the hosts the lead with a close-range backheel before second-half goals from Danijel Sturm and Aljosa Matko completed the comeback for Sebastien Pocognoli's Slovenia, which had won in North Macedonia on Saturday.
"Not good enough," Robertson told BBC Sport Scotland. "The whole team. We didn't do the good things we did on Saturday, I don't know what that's down to. They caused us a lot of problems and we have to find the reasons why." He added: "We wanted to kick on from Saturday because we had a really positive feeling about what we're doing and where we're going. We didn't do that. It's been a long camp, I don't know if it was down to tiredness, but Slovenia have played the same amount of games as us. They looked a lot fresher, more hungry. As Scotland, we might lack quality or make mistakes, but I don't think people accept being outfought. I think that's what happened tonight."
"We didn't deserve to get the win, that's the reality," Pocognoli said. "On the ball we were not clever enough. We were far from strong enough in the duels. The reality is each game teaches us some information. We will try to go through the process we want and learn from this one and do better in the next one."
Pocognoli, who succeeded Steve Clarke in August promising a more aggressive and attacking style, has introduced several new faces. Josh McPake made his debut against Slovenia, following Stephen Welsh, Robbie Ure, Luis Binks and Luke Graham across the previous three fixtures. Scotland drew 0-0 in Slovenia in Pocognoli's opener, then fell 3-0 at home to Switzerland after an early red card for Jack Hendry, before rebounding with a convincing win at North Macedonia on Saturday.
The setback has dented that optimism and left Scotland alarmingly open defensively. Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday said Pocognoli's honeymoon period is already over, calling it as poor a Scotland performance as he could remember against opposition Scotland was expected to beat. Former Scotland captain Willie Miller questioned the high defensive line and back-three system, noting Slovenia repeatedly got in behind and left huge gaps, and wondered whether Pocognoli will persist with the shape or revert to a back four.