Scotland were defeated 2-1 by Slovenia in a Nations League fixture, with captain Andy Robertson stating that his side simply were not good enough. "We were not good enough," Robertson told BBC Sport Scotland, adding that the Scots were outplayed in duels.
Scotland took the lead in the first half thanks to a goal from Ryan Christie, who scored with a close-range finish. However, in the second half, Danijel Sturman and Alj Maško scored goals to overturn the result in Slovenia's favour. Following Saturday's win in North Macedonia, Sebastian Ratz's side were favourites for another victory at Hampden Park.
Robertson stated that the team did not replicate the good things from the previous match. "I don't know what to attribute it to. They created a lot of problems for us and we have to find the reasons for that," he said. "We wanted to continue where we left off on Saturday as we had a very positive feeling about what we were doing and where we were going. We didn't do that." The captain added that the camp had been long and he did not know if fatigue was the reason, but he noted that Slovenia had played the same number of matches and looked fresher and hungrier. "As Scotland, perhaps we lack quality or we make mistakes, but I think people do not accept that we were outplayed. I think that happened to us last night," Robertson concluded.
Head coach Panagiotis Ratz agreed with his captain's assessment that Scotland were well below par. "We did not deserve to win, that is the reality," he said. "With the ball we were not clever enough. We were far from strong enough in duels." He added that every match brings new information and that they would try to go through the process, learn from this match, and be better in the next one.
Panagiotis Ratz took charge of the team in August, succeeding Steve Clarke, and promised a more aggressive, offensive style, calling up several new players. Josh Mackay made his debut against Slovenia, following the previous three matches in which Stephen Welsh, Robbie Ure, Lewis Binks, and Luke Graham had played. Scotland had been expected to win in Slovenia in Panagiotis Ratz's first game, which ended in a goalless draw. An early red card for Jack Hendry had weakened them in a 3-0 home defeat. A victory over North Macedonia had been convincing and had brought a measure of optimism, but that is now seriously shaken.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday believes that Panagiotis Razz's period of grace has already ended. "I thought Panagiotis would probably need a period of grace entering this camp," Halliday told Sportsound. "I think that period has now ended. That was the worst performance by Scotland that I remember in recent times against an opponent we were expected to beat. Slovenia probed behind Scotland's high defensive line several times."
Former captain Willie Miller was not sure if Panagiotis would stick to the formation with three in defence. "This is Panagiotis's preferred system and he has had time to work with it, but everything was all over the place," Miller told Sportsound. "Huge gaps kept appearing and Slovenia were exploiting them. Our situation is that we have a new coach, he has a preferred system, what will he do? Will he simply get rid of it? He is going back to four in defence? His preferred system is three in defence, but it was incredibly poor."
