Scotland team v Ukraine: Steve Clarke's obvious starting XI blueprint for World Cup play-off showdown

There is an obvious (dark) blueprint for the Scotland starting line-up Steve Clarke is likely to select to face Ukraine.

It is provided by the first XI he picked for the towering 2-0 triumph at home to Denmark last November – which earned the World Cup semi-final play-off that lies in wait on Wednesday at Hampden. A couple of caveats require to be set out before delving into it, though.

Injuries prevented both Grant Hanley and Nathan Patterson from featuring that memorable evening. Their places then were taken by Liam Cooper and Stephen O’Donnell. It has emerged that Patterson, who was expected to be sidelined again this week, is back in light training. As a result, there is cautious optimism that the, thus far, underused Everton right-back will be available for deployment on the right of a midfield four in Clarke’s now default 3-4-2-1 formation.

Meanwhile, even after Norwich City’s, frankly, sorry demotion, the Suffolk club’s captain Hanley is ready to rock, or rather be the rock, in Scotland’s defensive triangle … as he has reliably been since relaunching his international career 14 months ago. This need not result in Leeds United’s captain Cooper making way from the side that swatted aside the Danes six months ago, though. A situation owed to the loss of Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney to a knee problem he sustained in Scotland’s last outings, the friendly draws with Poland and Austria in late March. Now a number of us humble members of the commentariat would push the case for Nottingham Forest’s in-form centre-back Scott McKenna, and not Cooper, to be the left-footed replacement for Tierney. However, two factors may count against such a possibility. Clarke isn’t a coach to make change for change sake, or set aside previous