Former Celtic starlet Ben Doak has been praised by Liverpool youth manager Barry Lewtas for his seamless transition into the higher levels of youth football for the Reds after impressing in the UEFA Youth League.
Doak, who grew up in the academy at Lennoxtown until the age of 16 after joining from Ayr United, moved to Liverpool for a fee of around £600,000 in March after Celtic failed to agree terms with him, despite making his first-team debut back in January in a late 1-0 home win over Dundee United.
Unsurprisingly to every Hoops fan, Doak has torn the youth leagues up in England with 12 goal contributions in just 13 games before his 17th birthday - an incredible haul for a young talent. And academy manager Lewtas has showered praise on the Dalry-born star for showing up as 'unplayable' in big games - including the UEFA Youth ties against Rangers this season.
“Ben was unplayable at times. We knew how we wanted the game to go. It was all about the control and overloading certain parts of the pitch," Lewtas told the Liverpool Echo.
“We knew we’d get in with Ben, but you’ve still got to give him the ball and then it’s over to him really. Today we were able to get him lots of the ball. He beat his man a number of times 1v1.
“He was unfortunate not to score in the first half but obviously got his goal in the end. He loves the big occasions. Rangers, in the two Youth League games, he was fine with his mentality towards that so I had no issues dropping him in today.
"We’ve got quite a few lads missing at the moment so it’s a real opportunity for the younger ones. Today he was certainly one who stepped up. He’ll be flitting between the two age groups, he is still only young. At the minute we have got a few lads injured and a few with the first team. He’s still a youth-teamer but when he comes up and trains with us, we’ll see where he goes from there.”
