The five Scotland squad questions facing Clarke

Scotland may have only played 20 days ago, but Steve Clarke is already clattering together his squad for the next two crucial World Cup qualifiers.

The Scots, who sit second in Group C on goal difference after opening their campaign with an away draw to Denmark and a win against Belarus in Hungary, continue their pursuit of qualification for a first World Cup since 1998 with a home double-header against Greece and Belarus next month – live on the BBC.

The short and sweet schedule – the last qualifying window is in November – suggests there will be few fresh faces among the squad the ever-loyal head coach will announce on Tuesday.

But even so soon after naming his last crop of players, he has some key questions to wrestle with.

Here BBC Scotland takes a look at them.

Let’s get the troubling position out the way, first.

Though Angus Gunn kept back-to-back clean sheets on his return between the Scotland sticks earlier this month, the shotstopper has not had a sniff at new club Nottingham Forest in the meantime.

He’s only been named on the bench once – in the late League Cup win against Swansea – since 31 August, and has yet to catch even the peripheral vision of new manager Ange Postecoglou.

The good news for Gunn – perhaps not Clarke and the rest of the country – though, is no other goalkeeper is staking a claim to start.

Zander Clark hasn’t featured for Hearts since joining 29-year-old Gunn on the plane earlier this month, while Rangers’ Liam Kelly has only played against Alloa Athletic in the Premier Sports Cup this campaign.

The most recent call-up playing regular football is League Two Barnet’s Cieran Slicker.

It may be too soon to mention his name, following his horror Hampden debut, but Slicker has started nine league games, and recently saved two penalties in one afternoon against Crewe Alexandra.

Falkirk goalkeeper Scott Bain came in for a bounty of praise, despite their 3-0 defeat by Hearts on Saturday. If not for the former Celtic benchwarmer, John McGlynn’s side would have been on the end of a mauling.

The last of his three caps came more than six years ago in a 2-0 win over San Marino – Alex McLeish’s last game in charge before the Clarke era commenced.

How Clarke – and Scotland – have come to this between the sticks still leaves the mind boggling, but for now, Clarke has another big call or two to make.

Clarke initially named 10 defenders in his squad for the campaign openers before Celtic pair Anthony Ralston and Kieran Tierney withdrew on the eve of the Copenhagen contest.

Sassuolo’s Josh Doig was called up in their absence, and the bullish backline did not suffer from one less body.

Tierney is likely to be named again, given he managed 82 minutes in the Europa League away to Red Star Belgrade after a first – and only – 90-minute outing against Partick Thistle three days before. But Ralston only made his return from injury in the goalless draw with Hibernian at the weekend.

Thankfully for Clarke, Aaron Hickey – who impressed immensely in both games on his international return – has continued to build on that at Brentford and made his first Premier League start in 700 days in the weekend win against Manchester United.

Given his recent injury problems, everyone will whisper it quietly, but the former Hearts right-back appears to be on the right track, and with Max Johnston able to deputise, Clarke might have to cut Ralston – who has not let him down – and or others to make space for a stronger strike force.

In short, no.

And the Tartan Army would revolt if the Bournemouth man was not named on Tuesday.

Since putting in a man of the match performance against Belarus in his first start for Scotland since November 2024, the former Liverpool winger has only seen 17 minutes of Premier League action.

But, the teenager’s lack of minutes has to be a concern for Clarke.

If you haven’t heard that Oliver Burke became the first Scotsman to score a hat-trick in the Bundesliga, then where have you been?

One of Scotland’s forgotten men achieved the feat for Union Berlin against Eintracht Frankfurt on 21 September, and since then, the clamour to get him back in a dark blue jersey has been significant.

The 28-year-old made his international debut as an 18-year-old in 2016, but picked up the last of his 13 caps against Israel in 2020.

Each of his goals exhibited qualities seldom seen in a Scotland shirt – notably pace and power – and former international – and Bundesliga winner – Paul Lambert said he is making it difficult for Clarke “not to ignore him”.

“The Bundesliga is so strong, it’s so technical and for him to score a hat-trick, it’s a massive confidence boost,” Lambert told BBC Scotland last week.

“Now he has to do it consistently. That’s the key.

“If he does that, then Stevie can’t really ignore him.”

Burke followed-up his historic showing with a quieter performance against Hamburg on Sunday night that might just have hampered his outside chance of forcing Clarke’s hand.

Becoming the highest scorer in the SPFL era – with his 163rd goal across all divisions since the league’s formation in 2013 – offered another opportunity for Lawrence Shankland to be showered in praise.

An impressive feat no doubt, but unfortunately for the Hearts captain, Clarke doesn’t come across as the kind who gets caught up in such statistics.

He does, though, like a goal scorer and Shankland has found his shooting boots again after a barren spell last campaign.

His record-breaking strike against Falkirk followed a double at Ibrox and his tally for the season sits at seven already.

Another issue for the 30-year-old is the form of his fellow international strikers.

Clarke is always calling on his tried and tested in Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams – who has four goals in his past three games for Scotland – which doesn’t leave much room for the herd of runners and riders.

In an otherwise happy camp, there was plenty hysteria back home when Kieron Bowie wasn’t brought on against Belarus especially, so it appears unlikely the powerful Hibs forward will fall out, while George Hirst – who made a cameo in Copenhagen – has two goals in his past two games for Ipswich.

And of course, there’s Tommy Conway who is coming in for all sorts of compliments for his Middlesbrough performances.

It’s a healthy headache to have for the head coach but given the magnitude of the meetings with Greece and Belarus next month, he’s got to get it right.