I CONFESS to being something of an obsessive when it comes to the intricacies of competition rules. Part of a commentator’s preparation for any major tournament is knowing exactly how teams progress to a future stage.

How complicated can it really be? Well, it does differ a lot between Uefa and Fifa with the former preferring head-to-head records to separate teams locked together on points, as opposed to the latter’s goal difference.

Uefa have given us the Nations League which means getting to grips with an entirely different rule book. Europe’s governing body promises us that the format is “different, not complex” but it is certainly possible to argue that it is in fact simultaneously both!

For anyone unsure about this new concept, the idea is to minimise meaningless friendlies and replace them with competitive games. There is also the important carrot of a potential place in the Euro 2020 field. For a country like Scotland, devoid of any major tournament participation since 1998, this avenue is certainly not to be sniffed at.

The next three international windows will all have the Nations League at their forefront. The more you delve into the fine points of the set-up, the more you have to conclude that it will offer excitement, eventually.

Take Scotland, who find themselves in League C, Group 1 along with Albania and Israel. By winning this three-team section to be played between now and November, Scotland would book themselves a second chance to reach the Euros should they fail to finish in the top two of their qualifying group proper.

Helping matters here is that the draw for the qualifying competition as we have previously known it, doesn’t take place until December with the matches themselves scheduled between March and November, 2019.

So think of it as three distinct phases. The Nations League group phase, the qualifying group phase and the Nations League play-offs.

Twenty places will be allocated through the orthodox method with 10 groups of either five or six teams, before the final four slots are determined by play-offs in March 2020. In the play-offs, a country would find itself in a bracket of four, with the winners (after a two-legged semi-final and a final) going through to the tournament itself.

Even if they don’t win their Nations League group, it behoves Scotland to do as well as possible this autumn. Let’s say for example Romania win their Nations League group and Scotland don’t, but run Israel or Albania close. If Romania secure a place in the finals by finishing first or second in the more traditional qualifying section, Scotland could end up taking their place in the play-offs.

It is not worth going beyond that in detail terms at this point but you get the idea. The work done now could be worth its weight in gold down the line.

I like it on a number of grounds, not least that is takes away the preoccupation of teams strategically planning friendlies to obtain maximum ranking points. Everything is weighted much more heavily in favour of the Nations League and there will be limited scope to schedule the kind of tepid friendly that fans of all nations grumble about.

The national associations will like it from a revenue angle, too. The Nations League matches come under a centralised TV rights deal from which Uefa, and by extension the associations, have benefited. It is altogether much harder to attain television revenue from a one-off friendly between Scotland and Albania.

It will doubtless take fans a while to adjust to this new rhythm of competition but what is certain is that Scotland, and nations of a similar standard, cannot afford to treat the Nations League as a warm-up for the real thing. This is as real as it gets.

DECISIONS, decisions for Premier League fans. To follow Watford v Tottenham today, a meeting of two clubs with perfect records? Or to cast an eye at the goings-on at Turf Moor where Burnley host Manchester United?

I suspect the latter will attract more attention on the back of Jose Mourinho’s defiant behaviour and baffling utterances on Monday.

Seven days on from being thrashed at Old Trafford by Spurs, it is difficult to square Mourinho’s circle. That a 3-0 doing at home can be explained as some sort of non-defeat in tactical and strategic terms is impossible to take seriously.

Perhaps this is the ideal game for a United side not without defensive troubles. A short 30-mile trip to face a team struggling to scale the considerable heights of last season and bizarre as it may sound, the pressure of playing at Old Trafford removed. I expect Mourinho’s team to tighten up and eliminate the mistakes of the Brighton and Spurs matches, although a Phil Jones-Chris Smalling partnership is not the future.

The question about United’s incumbent in the technical area still leaves us with the conclusion that Mourinho is on borrowed time. His own track record is not one of longevity anywhere and stylistically he has never looked like the right fit for a club associated with more expansive ways.

Mourinho was right to point out, albeit without tact, his success at winning Premier League titles as compared with other managers in his Monday comments. The stark fact is, his rival bosses are offering their fans more. Whether with Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino or Maurizio Sarri, there is the promise of something exciting brewing week in, week out.

The same can’t presently be said of Mourinho’s United.