Topic: Welcome to LFC Ben Doak

[Crosby Nick]

Man's hatin' on a kid on his birthday. Have some shame.

He’s a Teacher, it’s what he lives for.

[Knight]

I just don't understand his need to have an "end product" as though that is some paramount criterion to judge the lad. By your expectation you would have been saying the same thing about Rushie, as he made 9 appearances in his first seaon and didn't score a single goal or make one assist.

So? For every Rush there’s a bunch of young attacking players who make 9 senior appearances without much to show for it by way of end product and never go on to have a brilliant career scoring/creating goals for us. At some point Doak will need to offer some productivity in terms of XG and XA to demonstrate he’s got a future playing for Liverpool, nothing wrong with pointing that out.

[Samie]

Does anyone understand footie like you?

[DelTrotter]

I just don't understand his need to have an "end product" as though that is some paramount criterion to judge the lad. By your expectation you would have been saying the same thing about Rushie, as he made 9 appearances in his first seaon and didn't score a single goal or make one assist.

Yep, it's proper weird and he's mentioned it on about 10 different occasions so far.

Can't believe a player that's played 184mins for us this season hasn't scored and assisted fuck loads.

[Fromola]

Yep, it's proper weird and he's mentioned it on about 10 different occasions so far.

Can't believe a player that's played 184mins for us this season hasn't scored and assisted fuck loads.

He's been unlucky not to score a couple this season. His final ball definitely needs work but he's 17 (until today anyway). Sterling broke through at the same age and had no end product initially.

[CHOPPER]

[TepidT2O]

He's been unlucky not to score a couple this season. His final ball definitely needs work but he's 17 (until today anyway). Sterling broke through at the same age and had no end product initially.

I don’t agree with that, because he’d shown a hell of a lot in our youth team.

Doak will hopefully turn out to be a top player for us.  He has great potential, he really does.  But he hasn’t yet shown end product, so he currently remains just a prospect.

Jordan Ibe was a prospect and didn’t manage to develop that end product (although he was unfortunate to be cup tied for much of his Liverpool career).   Will Doak end up the same way? Only time will tell

[RyanBabel19]

To be fair Doak played dangerous passes into the box a good few times in his limited minutes, they just haven't been anticipated and/or finished. Its not like he's tried to just go it alone or got wide and never crosses to even attempt to find a teammate

[StL-Dono]

Good god...   This is quickly becoming the number one thread in the "must avoid" category. 

Unbelievable the people here in this thread practically creaming themselves trying to find reasons to run the kid down. 

What's wrong with being excited about the kid's potential and looking forward to what the future might hold for him?   

[GreatEx]

Nothing wrong with being excited about a youth prospect, it's always more satisfying to produce superstars than to buy them. But, you know, when Salah was being courted by the executioners, some were even suggesting we could afford to sell because we had Doak (not as a direct replacement mind, but as one capable ofholding a spot in an undiminished attack); that's when enthusiasm crosses the line into delusion. He may or may not make it, as with all the young lads the odds are steep, but we all hope for the same thing.

[Ghost Town]

I am, that’s the whole point!..

No you're not. You're not reserving judgment, your stating things about the existence, or not, of end product. Prematurely

If he delivers end product I can judge.  He hasn’t yet.

That's judging the quality of it, not the existence of it.

It's so weird. Nothing 'critical' needs to be said for a long time yet on a kid who has barely played.

[Yorkykopite]

If he delivers end product I can judge.

Likewise. Until he starts scoring loads of goals and producing loads of assists I'm going to keep saying he's no good.

[Black Bull Nova]

To be fair Doak played dangerous passes into the box a good few times in his limited minutes, they just haven't been anticipated and/or finished. Its not like he's tried to just go it alone or got wide and never crosses to even attempt to find a teammate

He's too quick for his colleagues, it's not uncommon. Litmanen was too clever for his reserve team colleagues.

[Samie]

Pep Lijnders says Ben Doak will require an operation on a knee injury after tearing his lateral meniscus

[MonsLibpool]

Wishing him a swift recovery.

[duvva 💅]

Poor lad. This season probably hasn’t developed the way he’d hoped it would.

Hopefully he recovers well

[disgraced cake]

Every promising young player we get seems to get a long term injury around this age. It's very frustrating. Not sure on the timeline for the injury but hopefully he can look the part in pre-season again and we take it from there.

[jillcwhomever]

Best of luck to the lad, hopefully back in time for pre-season.

[Draex]

Every promising young player we get seems to get a long term injury around this age. It's very frustrating. Not sure on the timeline for the injury but hopefully he can look the part in pre-season again and we take it from there.

I think this is unfortunately one of the very hard to mitigate risks of young players, a still growing body and the demands of playing football.

Gutted for him as he's a proper talent.

[Samie]

Every promising young player we get seems to get a long term injury around this age. It's very frustrating. Not sure on the timeline for the injury but hopefully he can look the part in pre-season again and we take it from there.

Timeline is 4-5 months, so we'll see him in pre season again. Hulked up Doak is coming. 

[tubby]

Timeline is 4-5 months, so we'll see him in pre season again. Hulked up Doak is coming. 

Might have finally grown a body to match the size of his head by then.

[Draex]

Might have finally grown a body to match the size of his head by then.

You take that back

[TepidT2O]

Three months out??

Good luck to the lad.  Come back and make an impact!

[mullyred94]

Three months out??

Good luck to the lad.  Come back and make an impact!

3 months isn't too bad thought it was an ACL.

[spider-neil]

Wax on, wax off.

[Fromola]

Our best young players always seem to get a serious injury every season.

[RedG13]

This Sucks. Hope he returns fully from it

[God's Left Peg]

That the kid from Over The Top?

[rafathegaffa83]

Awful news. Wishing him a speedy recovery

[TipTopKop]

Was fearing worse than 3 months. Good luck to the lad.

[TepidT2O]

Was fearing worse than 3 months. Good luck to the lad.

3 months was speculation on my part.

But it’s not 9months at least….

[SamLad]

3 months was speculation on my part.

But it’s not 9months at least….

well I guess we'll see won't we .....

[shank94]

Trying to find positives here, so thankfully he has had a good batch of games this season to assess himself at this stage. There was a huge chance he wouldn't get too many sniffs if any (even with AFCON) in the second half of the season as we move into the latter stages of all competitions bar the FA cup. Hoping it's not more than 6 months so we have him back for preseason or early next season again.

[Samie]

[afc tukrish]

Carrying out the laundry to hang?

[Fordy]

Ok, what does it mean? How long.

[thaddeus]

Included in provisional Scotland squad for Euro 2024.  I didn't even realise he'd made his comeback from injury.

[Fromola]

Included in provisional Scotland squad for Euro 2024.  I didn't even realise he'd made his comeback from injury.

Helps build his fitness for pre season. Unless Clarke is just calling him up without him properly recovered which risks further problems

[Black Bull Nova]

I'll be honest, I'd almost forgotten about him (and Carvalho)


Doak, Quansah, Bradley, Clark, McDonnell, Carvalho, Danns, Elliot, Bajcetic, Koumas, Gordon. Not a bad set of players aged under 21


Add in those under 25 (Konate (24), Kelleher, Williams (23), Trent, Szoboslai (23), McAlister, Jones (23), Gravenberch (22), Nunez (24), Gakpo, Van Der Berg(22)) and that's a hell of a load of potential, two teams worth indeed

[stockdam]

Hope he gets into the travelling squad and gets an opportunity. He has raw acceleration and can burst past players. He just needs time to learn how to play the final ball and then he’ll be a great player. A run of games with Scotland would do him the world of good.