Kieron Bowie is having a difficult time at Sassuolo and Robbie Ure is in-and-out of the Sevilla team, but he scored twice for them last month. Oli McBurnie’s painful wait for a Scotland goal carries on, but he has two in his last three for Hull in the Premier League.
Pocognoli says he has no fixed system, no slavish adherence to his favoured back three. It does sound like he’s sticking with it for North Macedonia, though.
“I try to find the best shape to make the players shine on the pitch,” he says. “After that, it’s up to them to show it. But I always try to adapt to my team. I think the shape that we play is the best shape to fit the best quality of the team.
“At Union Saint-Gilloise, when we became champions, we played three at the back because that was the system of the club.
“Sometimes I felt like, if we try a back four, maybe we can have more power in the game, but I didn’t do it because the club was building. In Monaco when I make the analysis of the squad, the best shape was a back three, but sometimes we played with a back four.
“It depends on the players’ abilities. I believe for this team, right now, it’s one of the best shapes. It’s a brave style of play that demands a lot of energy. But it’s a process. You need to analyse what is good for the future.”