Ben Doak drew the attention of the Liverpool coaching staff throughout the preseason, and he might play a regular role in the upcoming season, particularly in the Europa League.
Doak, one of the 16 players to appear in each of Liverpool’s five exhibition games, impressed with his direct style on the right side.
Ben, who was born in Scotland in November 2005, is the grandson of former Morton player Martin Doak and comes from a footballing background.
Following in the footsteps of Kieran Tierney and Liam Henderson, he enrolled in the St. Ninian’s school program and soon after joined Celtic’s academy.
In September 2021, Doak made his debut for Scotland’s Under-17 team against Wales, scoring a goal and winning the match. In December 2021, the academy alumnus made his Celtic B debut while playing for ex-Aberdeen and Hibernian defender Tommy McIntyre.
He was promoted to the matchday squad in December after working out with the Celtic first team and sat on the bench for the 3-1 victory at St. Johnstone.
A month later, the 16-year-old made his Celtic debut against Dundee United in a 1-0 Scottish Premiership victory after being substituted in at the 68th minute. After Jack Aitchison, he then made his debut as the second-youngest member of the club.
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Since then, Doak has made a further cameo appearance in a 3-0 victory over Rangers in an effort by Celtic to persuade him to remain in Glasgow.
But Liverpool beat out a number of elite clubs from across Europe to land Doak, who thought the opportunity to work with Jurgen Klopp was too good to pass up. When he made his club debut in November against Derby, he dazzled Anfield with a Salah-like shuffle.
Doak is a winger by nature and has mostly played in that position for Celtic’s youth teams, although he is also quite adaptable. The 16-year-old has experience playing as an attacking midfielder, wingback, and full-back.
He is well known for his lightning quickness, outstanding dribbling skills, and willingness to challenge an opposing defender head-on.
At the moment, Liverpool have a ton of interesting offensive players, including Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota.
But before trying to replace such forwards in the upcoming years, Doak would likely hone his talents with their Under-18s and Under-23s.
It’s still a long journey for Doak to cement a place in Liverpool’s playing 11, but the way he has grabbed eyeballs of everyone, he would definitely get an opportunity to dazzle everyone with his skills.
