Conclusion Before summarising what this all means for Scotland, an important caveat to this entire analysis is that this will be Slovenia’s first competitive game in charge under Boštjan Cesar so it’s really difficult to predict how they’ll set up. They did carry on with a 5 at the back formation in their friendlies earlier this year, but could just as easily switch to a back 4 and play two up top. However, I do think a lot of the fundamentals and patterns of play will remain the same. Being at home against a Scotland side who are very much at the early stages of a revamp, both tactically and personnel wise, I wouldn’t be surprised if Slovenia came out all guns blazing. Similar to how they started against Hungary, they might look to spook Scotland early with their press, harassing Scotland’s backline deep inside their half forcing turnovers. I suspect this won’t last too long as Slovenia naturally drop back into their structure. Personally if Slovenia do set up this way I would very much be in favour of Scotland sticking with this 4-2-3-1 formation, but with two outright wingers. Not only does this provide a little bit of protection if Slovenia overload the wide areas, but the pace of each winger could be crucial in exploiting spaces left out wide and in behind. Scotland’s triangle in midfield can also overrun their midfield pairing, including finding spaces between the lines. Most importantly I want to see Scotland play as a unit. Individually to a man, I think Scotland comfortably have more quality across the pitch but that means nothing if we don’t operate as a team. I suspect tactically there will be quite the shift from how Scotland played under Clarke and I want to see the players really buy into it. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, but this is a good a time as any to start. Stick to the game plan, stay patient, and take our chances.

❓ Reservations: • Mobility - whilst Binks can get around the pitch no problem, he's not blessed with much pace in a straight line so can be exposed by through balls in behind. This also wasn't helped by how high a line Brøndby were playing from the footage I watched. With how marauding Andy Robertson can be, I'd have some concerns over how well Binks could cover that area left behind. That said, Binks' positional awareness is strong so he knows how to negate his lack of recovery speed as much as possible. • Discipline - Being an aggressive centre-half, Binks gets carded a lot. Last season he picked up 12 bookings (all competitions) and faced two separate yellow card suspensions. This season after just 7 games, he's already been booked 4 times and is suspended for their game this evening. • Passing Decision-Making - Binks' range of passing and execution is arguably his greatest strength, but also highlights a real area for development - choosing the right pass at the right time. Binks can be guilty of trying to force passes or playing long diagonals when he doesn't necessarily need to leading to losing possession. It is a tough balance to get right when taking on that role of a ball-playing centre-back but one he'll likely fine tune the more experienced he gets.