Pep Lijnders compares Ben Doak to Dutch legends

Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders has been signing the praises of rising star Ben Doak.

17-year-old Doak, who signed for Liverpool in 2022, has been earmarked as a talent to watch in the coming years and even as a possible successor to Mohamed Salah on the Reds' right wing.

The Scotland Under-21 international, who joined from Celtic for around £600k, made his Premier League debut for the Reds last season and started the Europa League opener against LASK earlier this month.

The winger has been tipped to start Liverpool's Carabao Cup third-round clash against Leicester City on Wednesday, while the domestic trophies could provide a big opportunity for Doak to showcase his burgeoning talent this season.

Speaking to the press ahead of the Leicester game, Lijnders referenced Doak alongside Dutch greats Marc Overmars and Arjen Robben as wingers who can 'disorganise' the opposition.

Lijnders said: “He’s young so a lot of things can happen.

“I had the privilege of growing up in Holland and we have this long tactical culture of Johan Cruyff and the idea of having the wingers on the outside to create, can really use one-v-ones to disorganise the opposition, they have this speed.

“Overmars, Arjen Robben, this kind of player, in the past it was [Johnny] Rep, [Rob] Rensenbrink.

“So we have this culture of wingers, but you get a young winger from Scotland, only 17 years old, but has this capacity to create and to reach the final line with individual skill and movement, it’s nice to see.

“The good thing with Ben is that he comes into a squad with so much senior authority and, he is not this kind of guy, but he will never make a sidestep.

“The boys will tell him, you already hear constantly ‘decisions!’ from Robbo.

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“He has this great low centre of gravity, and that’s how he can control the ball at the highest speed with his left and right foot.

“But loads to come, he needs to mature, needs to listen to Robbo, to Salah, to Jota, to Cody, to Luis, to all these guys who are really trying to help him.

“We as a club, I think it’s really nice for young players to be in our squad.”

Doak signed a new long-term contract with Liverpool earlier in September.