Scotland manager Steve Clarke admits he is keeping a very close eye on the ‘very exciting’ Liverpool youngster Ben Doak with the teenager highly-rated in the Premier League and at international level.
On the opening weekend of the new league season, during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp sent teenager Ben Doak on for Mo Salah during the second-half. A handing over of the baton sort of moment, perhaps?
With Salah potentially on his way out of Anfield next summer – Al Ittihad will be back after failing with a £150 million bid a few weeks ago – it is not outside the realms of possibility that Liverpool opt to promote a still-17-year-old whizzkid rather than invest heavily on an outside hire.
Ben Doak has a big future for Liverpool and Scotland
“Special boy,” Klopp said of Doak this summer. “Really confident, has something nobody else delivers really, this kind of dribbling. This kind of straight-forward bravery. All these kind of things.
“Technically really good, high speed, super-promising but very young.”
Then again, Klopp is a coach who buys into the ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough’ mantra, as emphasised by Stefan Bajcetic’s starring role throughout much of last season.
Klopp, meanwhile, is not the only manager expecting big things from Doak.
‘Very exciting’
“Anybody who watched the Under 21 game on Monday night (Scotland narrowly losing 1-0 to Spain) could see he is really good. In the first half I thought he was really good,” Clarke tells the Daily Record.
“He is a young man learning the game. Going away and playing against Spain Under 21s away and being one of the highlights of the game is good for him. I was actually quite pleased with quite a lot of the young boys. I thought they did well, they competed well with Spain. So you look down and think, ‘Yeah, we can continue to improve’ That is what we are trying to do.
“Let’s just see how things pan out (for Doak). He is a young man. He is a very exciting talent, but sometimes you have to let them grow a bit.”
Liverpool signed Doak from Scottish champions Celtic in 2022. The Ayrshire-born winger has already made six first-team appearances for the Merseyside giants.
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