BEN Doak proved to be the difference between Scotland dropping out of the top tier of the Nations League this month and securing the relegation play-off place which keeps their chances of surviving among the international game’s elite alive.
Could the teenage winger, who set up John McGinn for his goals in the Group A1 wins over Croatia at Hampden last Friday night and Poland in Warsaw on Monday evening, now give Middlesbrough the X Factor they need in their push for promotion to the Premier League?
The former Celtic kid, who Liverpool have loaned out to the English Championship club this season, has been just as much of smash hit with supporters on Teesside as he has with Tartan Army footsoldiers during the 2024/25 campaign.
He has impressed onlookers hugely with his electrifying displays out wide for Michael Carrick’s side and has raised hopes they can return to the top flight for the first time since 2017 come May.
Read more:
“I always thought we would have a good chance of getting up this season because we've got a good squad,” said Neil Maddison, the former Middlesbrough midfielder who is now an academy ambassador and player welfare officer for the Riverside Stadium club.
“But Ben has been the difference for us, he really has. We've got some good senior players and some young players who are coming through who are doing really well. But Doak had just given everyone that bit more belief. The fans absolutely love him.
“He's a player who excites you and you need them in the Championship. The Premier League have got an abundance of talent. Look at Manchester City's squad, they've got so many good players. But all the teams in the division do.
“In the Championship, though, it's slightly different. You need that top class player to get you where you want to go. Ben is that top class player in my opinion. He always affects the game in the right way. For me, he's been our standout performer, without a shadow of a doubt.”
The away fans will be urging his team mates to pass to their new hero every time they win possession when they return to competitive action in a league game against Oxford at the Kassam Stadium tomorrow.
However, the young Scot’s arrival at the Riverside Stadium on loan on the final day of the transfer window back in August very much, as the Northern Echo’s chief sports writer Scott Wilson recalled, went under the radar.
“He was known in English football because he had played for Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp,” he said. “But he was viewed as a promising youngster. Nobody really knew much about him.
“Internally, Boro thought that getting Ben was a bit of a coup. But his signing kind of got lost because Emmanuel Latte Lath, who was the top scorer last season, was set to join Ipswich and that move broke down. So that kind of hogged the headlines. There wasn’t really much fanfare when he arrived.
“He then didn’t really feature because he hadn’t been involved in pre-season. He started for the first time in the seventh Championship game of the season. He had only made a couple of substitutes appearances before that. But he scored in a 2-0 win over Stoke and since then he has moved to a new level. It is inconceivable that he doesn’t start now.”
Read more:
-
'Get rich quick pipe dream’ that caused sad collapse of Dumbarton
-
Police probe underway into 'suspected fraud' at Dumbarton FC
-
Celtic Champions League foes hit with double-whammy injury blow
Maddison, who spent the majority of his career playing in the Premier League with Southampton and Middlesbrough in the late 1990s and early 2000s, also works as the co-commentator for BBC Radio Tees on match days and has seen all of Doak’s games for his former club.
“The first thing you notice is that directness,” he said. “He's really aggressive with the ball. Regardless of who he plays against, he's going to get at them. He's an old-fashioned winger who gets at full-backs, gets past them constantly, delivers balls and causes havoc in the opposition defence.
“He's a bit of a throwback. Back when I played, you had wingers who would run down the line and put in crosses. You knew as a midfielder that if you arrived late in the box then balls would be delivered. Now football is more possession-based and the cross doesn't really come in. Every team try to find that perfect goal.
“But you know Ben is going to be aggressive, is going to be direct, is going to is going to try and get past that full-back and deliver the ball. That allows you to get bodies into the box. He has been the key addition to the Middlesbrough squad this season. He has just lit everything up. Everyone's talking about him.”
“To actually see a player whose first thought is to go outside the full-back, get to the byline and cut it back or put a cross in is almost unusual nowadays. But Carrick is more than happy with that. He has generally played right-siders on the right and left-siders on the left.
“He was brilliant in the 4-1 win over QPR away before the international break. It was his best game for Middlesbrough. There is a real excitement about him down here. There is a definite feeling that he might be the X Factor that a team needs to get out of the Championship.”
Scotland striker Tommy Conway plays with Doak at Middlesbrough and he revealed during the international break that he was unsure if they would be able to keep him for the entire season because of the quality of his displays.
Maddison suspects that Liverpool will see the benefits of him playing regularly under former England and Manchester United midfielder Carrick and will allow him to remain on Teesside.
Read more:
-
Beale laments influence of 'unfair' fan media in modern game
-
Major Scotland World Cup draw update as four-team group confirmed
-
Michael Beale's Rangers reunion with Steven Gerrard official
“I think he will stay,” he said. “His progression has been really good and I think Liverpool understand that. He's still a young kid remember, he only turned 19 last week. But he’s going to get minutes with us, is going to play lots of games. He's getting better and better as a result.
“If I could pick a manager to guide him it would be Michael Carrick. He's got a real calmness about him. Plus, he knows the game inside and out. He's been a player at the top level himself and has been absolutely excellent for us as a manager.
“Yes, he hasn't been a manager that long. He only had a little stint at Manchester United before he came in and this is his first real job. But for me, he is the right man to guide him. The partnership fits like a glove. For Ben to have that calibre of manager alongside him will do him the world of good.”
Mark Drury, the BBC Radio Tees commentator and a lifelong Middlesbrough supporter, can understand why there has been talk about Doak returning to Anfield. “He already seems too good for us,” he said. “He is in such good form and is making a real difference. It is brilliant to see him out there in a Boro shirt doing it for us.
“Boro have set their stall out. They have identified that this is the season to go for promotion, to finish in the top two and go up automatically or get into the play-offs. Expectations are high. But that hasn’t been a problem for Ben one iota. He loves the big stage, loves it.
“He played for Celtic, not much but he played, and he has played for Liverpool too. So he is used to that even though he has only turned 19. The pressure is normal for him. He looks like a natural, like he was born to do it. And I can only see him getting better.”
“They just missed out last season,” he said. “But they had needed to get rid of a lot of their big players from the previous campaign so it was maybe understandable. This season there has not been the same upheaval. They are starting to play some really good football and won both of their games before the break. Top six is achievable.”
Dana Malt, a Middlesbrough supporter and contributor to the popular The Boro Breakdown podcast, agrees.
Read more:
-
Celtic star Kuhn responds to Germany boss after call-up hint
-
Special events announced to mark 200 years of football in Scotland
“I love him,” she said. “I love what he's given us this season. He's a throwback winger. Tactics in football in the modern era are very intricate. But he reminds me the game is fun and I really like that about him.
“He's one of those players who just gets you off your seat as a fan. He's everything that Boro have needed in recent years, somebody who can excite the fans. He's been very, very good this season.”
Malt continued: “We did lowdown videos on him for the podcast so we had a good look at him and did a lot of research about him when he joined. That underlined to us why there had been so much hype about him. But we had heard Klopp speak highly about him and that told us a lot as well. So I was excited.
“There was a bit of caution with him because he'd just come back from a long injury and he was only 18. I always feel young players go through peaks and troughs. I thought it might be a case of just him slowly, gradually getting into things.
“Initially, you could see how dangerous he is on the ball, how quick he is. His acceleration is fantastic, phenomenal even. But his end product wasn't quite there when he started in the team. Now his decision-making is very measured. He's shown he’s intelligent as well.
“A few Liverpool fans likened him to Adama Traore [the Fulham winger] when he joined and he is certainly very fast. But the difference is that Ben Doak doesn’t have tunnel vision. He's picking out the right ball more often than not. Added to his strength, his speed, his trickery and his directness, it makes for such an exciting player.
“We have some very good attacking talents just now, but Ben stands out amongst all of them. He knits Middlesbrough's attack together, is that little piece of the jigsaw that we have been missing. He absolutely is the X Factor in this team.”
