Steve Clarke: New Kilmarnock manager keeping things simple

Steve Clarke was named Kilmarnock manager following the departure of Lee McCulloch

Steve Clarke says he has resisted the temptation to make major changes in his first few days as Kilmarnock manager.

Clarke, appointed last week, takes his side to face Rangers at Ibrox on Wednesday in his first match in charge.

"You can't come in and bombard them with too much information," he said.

"We have worked on one or two basic principles that should be good enough to help us go forward, and slowly over the season we will keep adding little principles, better principles."

Former Reading and West Brom manager Clarke, who replaced Lee McCulloch at Rugby Park, hopes to introduce a "better style of play" at Kilmarnock as the season goes on.

"It's going to be slowly, slowly that things will start to change, but hopefully the Kilmarnock fans will see one or two changes in the coming matches," he explained.

On Wednesday night Killie visit Rangers on Premiership duty, with the Ibrox outfit having lost 2-0 to Motherwell in Sunday's Scottish League Cup semi-final.

Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha has said his players embarrassed him and the club on Sunday, but Clarke does not expect that to play a part on Wednesday.

"I thought it was a decent semi-final," Clarke said. "Rangers started the game well and created two or three really good chances in the first half-hour. If they managed to score one of them it would probably have been a different story.

"I do know that football players are very good at handling disappointment and moving on to the next game very quickly. They are professionals and that's what they are conditioned to do. I'm sure Rangers will be out there giving their best, as will we."