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Steve Clarke is planning to make a "raft of changes" for Tuesday's friendly against the Ivory Coast, with the Scotland head coach explaining his starting XI will be "unrecognisable" from the team that lost 1-0 to Japan on Saturday.
Scotland meet the West African nation for the first time at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium.
And Clarke is expecting another tough test after a late goal earned Japan victory at Hampden Park.
"Good side," he said of Ivory Coast, praising their "clinical" display in a 4-0 win over South Korea at the weekend.
"Different challenge. They play a different system. They're athletic.
"If you watch the 4-0 game, if I was South Korea coach, I'd be thinking, how did that happen? Because they were actually quite good in the game and created a number of chances, hit the post a couple of times.
"The 4-0 is a measure of how clinical Ivory Coast were. So, we know that we have to defend well, as always. That's the base for every game.
"But we also know that we have to try and create some problems and hopefully we can get ourselves on the scoresheet a few times."
Clarke confirmed that he will reveal an interim World Cup squad at the "start of May", the former Chelsea and St Mirren full-back joking that he would include himself if using all of the 55 places available.
Scotland host Curacao on 30 May before travelling to the USA, where they will take on Haiti, Morocco and Brazil in Group C.
"I've been looking for seven years, it's not about the last six weeks," Clarke said of the selection process.
"Where is the next talent? How are we going to improve the squad? That's my job.
"I understand what we've got. I've got a really good idea of what's coming next and there's one or two even younger that I know about. And there's maybe one or two with other countries at the moment that you are thinking 'maybe in the future we can persuade them to help the national team'."
Clarke has steered Scotland to three of the past four major finals, ending a 28-year absence from the World Cup.
"I can only pick 26," he said of his tournament squad. "For the younger ones in and around that, their ambition has to be the next tournament - and then the next tournament.
"If you can build that determination then we don't go 20 years without qualifying because the next group of players are as hungry as this group. We've got that mentality now, but it needs to run.
"Now we expect to qualify. The players know how to get points from a qualifying group. We finished above two good teams [Denmark and Greece]. We didn't always play at our best, but we found a way to get points at the right time."
Scotland have lost four of their previous seven matches against African nations, winning only two, with this their first since a 2-2 draw with Nigeria in May 2014.
Ivory Coast have lost their last two matches against European nations, 2-1 to France and 3-0 to England in March 2022 friendlies.
This will be Scotland's first game played on English soil without facing England since May 2014, when they drew with Nigeria at Craven Cottage.
Scotland had just eight goal attempts and 10 touches in the opposition penalty box as they lost 1-0 to Japan on Saturday. They last failed to score in consecutive matches in March 2024, in defeats by the Netherlands (4-0) and Northern Ireland (1-0).
Ivory Coast have only lost two of their last 13 internationals, winning eight of them, including two of their last three by at least a three-goal margin (3-0 v Burkina Faso and 4-0 v Korea Republic).
Ivory Coast have also kept nine clean sheets across these 13 games, conceding just seven goals.
Ché Adams has scored five goals in his last six starts for Scotland, making the Torino striker the top scorer along with Napoli midfielder Scott McTominay since the end of Euro 2024.
Scotland have won all nine of the matches in which Che Adams has scored.
Manchester United winger Amad Diallo has been directly involved in seven goals in his last nine games for Ivory Coast (four goals, three assists), including six in his last six starts (four goals, two assists).
Diallo came off the bench to assist his team's fourth goal in Saturday's victory over South Korea.
Captain Andy Robertson could win his 92nd cap for Scotland, which would move the Liverpool left-back into outright second for the most in the national team's history (overtaking goalkeeper Jim Leighton, 91). Only Kenny Dalglish (102) has played more often.
