While 20-year-old Gannon-Doak’s continued lack of minutes is not ideal considering he has proved to be a key provider of pace to Scotland’s play, club-mate Ryan Christie will have received a boost by being handed only his second start of the season, albeit the midfielder came off after 75 minutes of a 1-0 home defeat by Liverpool.
Indeed, all seven of Pocognoli’s original central midfield picks started at the weekend, only for McLean to pick up a knock while playing the full 90 minutes captaining his side in their 4-3 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers.
His somewhat left-field replacement, Scotland Under-21 cap Montgomery, came through the whole of his Championship game – a 2-2 draw with Blackburn Rovers against Portsmouth.
Billy Gilmour scored only his second senior goal with a fine strike in Napoli’s 1-1 draw at Fiorentina, as well as being named man of the match.
Meanwhile, also in Serie A, Lennon Miller started for the third time this season in Udinese’s 1-0 home defeat by Cagliari and Lewis Ferguson is back starting every game as Bologna captain, including their 1-1 draw with Torino.
For visitors Torino, Nathan Patterson made his second appearance as a substitute since his loan move from Everton as right-back continues to be a problem area for Scotland.
Aaron Hickey also had to make do with coming off the bench in Brentford’s fine 3-0 win over Chelsea.
Colby Donovan did start again for Celtic, albeit as the Scottish champions suffered a third straight defeat, while all three left-backs – Donovan’s club-mate Tierney, Tottenham Hotspur’s Andy Robertson and Sassuolo’s Josh Doig suffered losses after starting, with the former once again being unlucky with injury.
Only Scott McKenna – an unused sub as Croatian league leaders Dinamo Zagreb beat Lokomotiva – did not play in his club side’s latest game among Pocognoli’s defensive options.
With Gilmour the only weekend goalscorer and Robertson and Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn providing an assist each in Spurs’ 3-2 defeat, Pocognoli could look to that experienced trio to provide the creative spark for the Nations League matches starting away to Slovenia on Saturday.