CLARKE’S IN-TRAY

Name a squad

Clarke has less than three weeks before his first game against Cyprus in a Euro 2020 qualifier at Hampden on 8 June. The Scottish Football Association has provisionally pencilled in Monday for Clarke’s first squad announcement. Pick a backroom team

Clarke has worked with leading names in football – Jose Mourinho, Sir Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit and Gianfranco Zola. His assistant at Rugby Park was Alex Dyer, a former coaching colleague at West Ham. Find a goalscorer

With Leigh Griffiths out due to personal problems, there remains a vacancy for a first-choice striker. Oli Mcburnie netted 24 times for Swansea this season but is yet to find his feet at international level; Callum Paterson is injured; Marc Mcnulty only scored once for Hibernian after missing a sitter against San Marino; Oli Burke has looked short of confidence; and Steven Fletcher missed the last squad to manage fitness. Get three points

Nothing less than victory in Scotland’s first home qualifier will suffice if they harbour any realistic hopes of automatic qualification.

Stop the world’s best Belgium top the Fifa rankings and Clarke could not have a tougher first away game. But he inspired immediate improvement in Kilmarnock last season when he took over a team bottom of the Premiership and led them to their record top-flight points tally, so Scotland fans may have a small dose of optimism to take on the trip to Brussels.