If you thought Josko Gvardiol and Nicola Zalewski had a hard time against Ben Doak during Scotland’s Nations League victories over Croatia and Poland, then spare a thought for those who went before.
Amari’i Bell and Hevertton Santos may not be as well known — unless you regularly watch English Championship football — but what they have in common with £77million man Gvardiol and AS Roma regular Zalewski is the misfortune to have had to protect the left side of defence from Doak this season.
Only to find that it’s a bit like trying to throw a lasso round the Road Runner.
One goal, three assists. The raw statistics of the 19-year-old Liverpool winger’s loan spell with Middlesbrough so far do not necessarily leap off the page.
But it’s the oohs and aahs from home fans at the Riverside Stadium — and the growing number of opposition left-backs who have been left needing to lie down in a darkened room after trying to tame him — that tell the full story.
Bell, of Luton Town, and Santos, of Queens Park Rangers, were both substituted at half-time.
Ben Doak has made a big impression on loan at Middlesbrough this season
The 19-year-old is enjoying an extended run of first-team football in the English Championship
His eye-catching displays have caught the eye of Scotland boss Steve Clarke
Daniel Gray, editor of Scottish football quarterly Nutmeg, makes regular pilgrimages from Edinburgh to Middlesbrough to watch his hometown team in action.
A 300-mile round trip when you’re at the mercy of delays, cancellations, the weather, and a football club renowned for being predictably unpredictable is not always the most attractive proposition. This season it’s been made worthwhile by the effervescence of the young Ayrshireman on the wing.
‘I love Ben Doak,’ enthuses Gray, author of books including The Silence of the Stands, longlisted for the 2023 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. ‘The 5-1 win over Luton (before the international break) was his best game yet. He plays like a kid who’s just been given a new ball for Christmas. It is wonderful, throwback stuff.
‘Whereas an old-fashioned winger might drift in and out of games and aim long crosses in, he wants to be part of everything and is always conjuring tight angles near the byeline.
‘I grew up watching Scots like Gary Hamilton, Bernie Slaven and John Hendrie, who was a squat, darting winger turned centre-forward. I see shades of Hendrie when Doak’s on the ball, torturing a full-back.
‘I’ve enjoyed watching him so much that even rail replacement buses haven’t annoyed me this season — that’s the highest accolade I can offer!’
Journalist Dominic Shaw covers Middlesbrough for The Northern Echo, and is another fully paid-up member of the northeast branch of Doak’s fan club.
‘He’s established himself as Boro’s most dangerous attacking threat and caused left-backs no end of problems,’ says Shaw. ‘Michael Carrick is usually cautious when bedding-in new signings, so the fact Doak has become a pivotal starter this season quickly gives you an indication of just how impressive an impact the teenager has made.
Doak showed no fear up against Croatia’s Josko Gvardiol in this month’s Nations League win
‘His direct “head down and run” approach scares the life out of defenders, but it would be unfair to say that’s all he has in his locker. Pace is undoubtedly his best asset, but he’s also baffled full-backs with his trickery and ability to cut inside, and he’s done the dirty work and provided cover for his right-back when required.’
Middlesbrough are inextricably linked with exotic foreign talent, a legacy of that late ’90s golden age when Fabrizio Ravanelli and Juninho called the Riverside home.
Scottish players and successful Boro sides have also gone hand in hand, however, dating back to prolific striker Slaven in the 80s, legendary midfield pair Graeme Souness and Bobby Murdoch in the ’70s, and iconic goalkeeper Rolando Ugolini — born in Tuscany, raised in West Lothian — in the ’50s.
Yet how did Doak in particular wind up there, after a breakthrough season where Jurgen Klopp selected him five times for Liverpool’s first team?
Shaw explains: ‘Kieran Scott, Boro’s head of football, recently revealed that Carrick told him early in the summer of his wish to sign Doak if at all possible.
‘At that stage, Liverpool hadn’t made their mind up on the winger’s next step, and several Championship clubs are understood to have hung their hopes on getting him.
‘But first-team coach Jonathan Woodgate was previously a scout for Liverpool and still has contacts there, and Boro have established a good reputation for their style of play and handling of youngsters.
‘Doak has since revealed that Liverpool sat with him and studied the various clubs that were keen, and all parties agreed that Boro’s style of play was the perfect fit.’
Doak has already established himself as a regular for Scotland alongside Andy Robertson
Of course, Doak is just one half of a Scottish double act currently shining there. Striker Tommy Conway joined from Bristol City on a £4.5million deal in mid- August, around a fortnight before former Celtic kid Doak arrived on loan.
With ex-England and Manchester United midfielder Carrick in charge, and a sizeable budget by Championship standards, Middlesbrough were expected to be firm contenders for automatic promotion this season. Yet they won just four of their first ten league fixtures and were humiliated 5-0 at home to Stoke in the Carabao Cup.
Looking back at that period now, it’s perhaps no coincidence that Conway missed much of it with a hamstring injury, while Doak was often benched or subbed off early as he got up to speed following the knee issue that ruled him out of Euro 2024.
The two were not reunited in Carrick’s starting XI until late October, and the impact was immediate. Boro ground out a vital 1-0 win over promotion rivals Sheffield United, before a scintillating 3-3 draw at Norwich City.
Doak ran riot in that game, while Conway netted a double but also missed a penalty that allowed the hosts to mount an unlikely comeback.
In the last week of action before the international break, Middlesbrough rattled nine goals past QPR and Luton respectively, three of them laid on by Doak. Consequently, they climbed to seventh in the Championship, one point off a play-off place and seven behind early pace-setters Sunderland.
‘This version of Carrick’s Boro — in a sense the third team he’s had to build — play an ideal breed of the game for Doak and Conway to develop,’ observes Gray.
‘Some of our football in the final third is beguiling, breathtaking stuff. The trouble is, we then forget how to put the ball in the net. Hopefully that’s turned now.
John McGinn came off the bench to net the late winner which downed Croatia at Hampden
‘We always start seasons groggily, in fact I can hardly remember any good starts since the early ’90s.
‘But Doak especially gives us something no one else has, and I’ve a feeling Conway’s importance will grow as time goes on.
‘Whatever happens, I love watching us play, and you can’t ask for much more than that.’
Between the two of them, Conway, 22, and Doak appear to have administered a shot of adrenaline to Middlesbrough’s ailing promotion bid.
At the same time, in creating both of John McGinn’s goals against Croatia and Poland, Doak has almost singlehandedly resuscitated Scotland’s hopes of avoiding relegation from League A in the Nations League and qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. So, might there be something to said for keeping the duo together in Dark Blue, after their joint success in red?
Despite Steve Clarke’s words of caution, it would seem only a freak event could dislodge Doak from the right-wing position any time soon. For Conway, who struggled with a drought of service when given a start against Croatia, the pathway is less clear.
However, given the lack of form and fitness among Scotland’s striker pool, there are bound to be more opportunities in future.
With assistant coach John Carver based in Newcastle, there are certainly worse places to be than Middlesbrough if you want to catch the eye. And the report card from those watching the Taunton-born forward on a weekly basis could not be more positive.
Tommy Conway has linked up well with the former Celtic prospect at Middlesbrough
‘Conway’s attitude is superb, and that began from the minute he came on as a sub during his home debut against Portsmouth and stood up tall to take a last-minute penalty,’ notes Gray.
‘The problem is accommodating him and Emmanuel Latte Lath up front together, as they’re both in good form and do a similar job. But that’s for Michael Carrick to worry about!’
Shaw agrees: ‘Conway has enjoyed a really bright start to life at Boro, Carrick is delighted with his impact on and off the pitch. There was disappointment after his penalty miss at Norwich, but the fact he was the Boro player to emerge and speak to the media after the game didn’t go unrecognised with the supporters, who have really taken to him.
‘Both Conway and Doak are hugely popular with fans; mainly, I think, because of their positivity on the pitch and desire to make something happen. Boro fans take an interest and a sense of pride from their achievements with
Scotland — provided they don’t get injured, because both are going to be key for Boro to achieve their aim of winning promotion this season.’
Whether his plan is to come back and break into the Liverpool team, like Harvey Elliott, or lever himself into a big-money move elsewhere, like Fabio Carvalho, Doak will be well aware that a successful loan season in the Championship has been the launching pad for many a Liverpool starlet’s career in recent years.
And, if everything goes well for Carrick and Co, Conway might not have to go anywhere else to find himself playing Premier League football.
All of that is for the future, though. For now, the duo have a rather more simple task: warming Gray’s heart at the end of those long cross-country journeys in the months to come.
‘At the start of every season, due to never ending summer/autumn engineering works, it’s a rail replacement bus from Edinburgh to Newcastle and back,’ he says.
‘Then a train from there, so the early weeks of the Doak-Conway era took nigh on 10 hours return. But I’m just enjoying the riches we have going forward. It’s not that long since we were watching Tony Pulis play six centre-halves…’
