Why Ben Doak Is A Potential Superstar

A 2022 article reposted, after some new thoughts on the Scottish wing wizard

I first published this article early last season, on my separate ZenDen Substack, which is where I publish extra articles but where there's no commenting (which is kept to this, the TTT Main Hub, to keep the TTT community in one place).

Why Ben Doak Is A Potential Superstar

But before that, a bit more on the wee Scottish winger, ahead of the first preseason game of 2023/24.

Since I wrote the piece last year I've seen Alex Inglethorpe say that he “loves” Doak, and Jürgen Klopp has spoken glowingly of him a the backend of last season and again in preseason.

My only doubt about Doak – who while small is clearly strong, with a low centre of gravity and insane acceleration (so height isn’t an issue) – was if he was temperamentally sound. But that seems to be answered by talk of how good his attitude is. And still only 17, Doak can get even faster, as strength, pace and stamina increase well into the 20s, and wisdom increases all the time.

There’s always a worry in overhyping kids, but Doak seems physically and mentally robust enough to handle the hype.

It may still be a season too soon for Doak to dislodge Mo Salah, but he can challenge for minutes. By next season (2024/25), Salah may be forced to fight for his spot or indeed fully usurped, but Doak is ready for some action in 2023/24.

Salah is slowing down a little (his peak speed was down 1kmh last season), but Doak will get faster and a better. Unless injuries make it impossible, no one is at their fastest at 17. (The fastest ever 100m time by a 17-year-old is 5% slower than the overall men's 100m record; and 5% is a lot when you’re talking about milliseconds.)

Plus, to save the legs of the ageing superstars who start every game (now just Salah and Virgil van Dijk), Salah will surely be rested in the earlier stages of the Europa League; which is a chance to bed-in new players and blood some youngsters, even if the XI will remain pretty strong, with game-time to keep the likes of Diogo Jota and Darwin Núñez (if they are not in the league XI) sharp.

And from a tactical point of view, there's the fact that Doak – though always happy to cut inside onto his weaker foot as a player who is so intelligent about unpredictability (which I think too many players lack), is right-footed and will also go to the byline a lot. Could that suit the team if Trent Alexander-Arnold is not overlapping but hovering infield? The old way was Salah cutting infield, Trent going outside.

The issue Salah always has when cutting inside is that four men follow him, and when blocked off, would still try and shoot. Those shots are getting less effective, but he draws a lot of defenders towards him.

However, he can now pass to Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister, venomous shooters from 25 yards and powerful side-footers from 12-20 yards (as is Curtis Jones, who is only now starting to show that in league games), who can benefit in the way Riyad Mahrez and Arsenal's wide-men squared for İlkay Gündoğan and Martin Ødegaard respectively.

(I watched one game where Riyad Mahrez cut inside every single time, and as I thought “what a waste”, he squared to Gündoğan to score; then did it again soon after.)

This was something lacking in Jordan Henderson, Thiago, Fabinho, and any other senior Liverpool midfielders since early Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keïta. The square pass was often a waste of time. Salah may as well just have a shot against a defender’s knees. This is the entire new dimension I’m expected from Szoboszlai and Mac Allister, who also press to win the ball back better than the midfielders who have left or look to be leaving.

Doak's direct running at pace with the ball under control – or the knock-and-run – would mean that, even if tackled when cutting inside, the chaos would lead to ball recoveries and snap-shots by the no.8s or the centre-forward.

(Interestingly, Szoboszlai is also now rated as quicker than Mo Salah. Given the pace of Doak, and the pace of right-sided utility speedster Conor Bradley who excelled at Bolton, things could get spicy on that flank! Playing Núñez there is another option, too, given the surplus of options on the left. Núñez is maybe not a natural right-winger, but if he just runs with the ball and crosses with his favoured right foot, that could create havoc, too. What Liverpool lack on the right is an inverted goalscorer other than Salah, but as I’ve noted, the future aim for the right flank could be to give a bit more width, instead of just cutting inside. And remember, Doak scores goals by shooting from right to left, as does Szoboszlai – just as John Barnes did with his left foot, from left to right. The angle suits the inverted shot, but the old-fashioned way is still viable, and if cutting inside, it doesn’t hurt to shoot with the weaker foot.)

Doak going outside also allows others to get into the box, and Cody Gakpo, as well as some great goals, scored three tap-ins from such situations, which may all have come from the times Alexander-Arnold got to the byline (if memory serves). But Alexander-Arnold may pop up less in that position – albeit he pops up almost everywhere as the quasi-no.6.

Anyway, here's my view on Doak from last year, which also covers tracking him after he first arrived and went into the U18s – and possibly my quickest conclusion that a kid was gonna make it. He blitzed U18 teams, then blitzed U21 teams. The next step will take longer, but he’s got what it takes.

Why Ben Doak Is A Potential Superstar

For now, amid the confusion of the club's long-term future off the field, there were a ton of positives from the various young Liverpool lads last night on it. No matter who the owners are in a few years’ time, some of these lads will surely be part of the first-team setup.

To a (young) man they shone, with the exception of a slightly isolated Layton Stewart, who is just doing well to play football again after so many horrific injuries. (Teenagers rarely reach the elite level after ACL injuries; Darwin Núñez is a notable exception, and could maybe be an inspiration. Rhian Brewster and Paul Glatzel both lost too long with serious injuries aged 17-20, and fell behind their peers.)

I've been raving about Ben Doak since viewing all the age-group scouting footage when he signed in the spring, and whose every U18 and U21 game I've since tracked.

He has been my tip for the very top – and he didn't disappoint in a 15-minute cameo where he must have gone past the full-back five times (and only tackled once), and also skinned a man in midfield who couldn’t even get close enough to kick him properly.

He's the best (or most ruthlessly direct) teenage talent I've seen since Michael Owen at the same age, even if it's harder to break through now (more elite foreign players; bigger physiques in general in football in 2022, that make the leap from youth to senior football more of a challenge).

Now, a lot can go wrong: injuries; loss of motivation; big-headedness. But right now, the lad is special.

Doak is not a fancy-footwork showboating seal (no twirling the ball round and round before kicking it out of play), but almost old-fashioned, in that he is a push-and-run merchant, but in a sophisticated way, reminiscent of the best old-school wingers going back to Sir Stanley Matthews – enticing defenders, timing the perfect touch past them, then accelerating like a greyhound.

No excess – just hard-core skinning.

In no game, at any level, have I seen a full-back deal with him. Not one game.

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