The fast and the calm. An inexperienced teenager and a veteran goalkeeper have played important roles in Scotland’s recent improvement in fortunes, according to former national team coach Craig Levein.
An injury deprived Ben Doak of a potential international debut at Euro 2024, while Craig Gordon failed to make the cut after struggling to return to fitness.
Winger Doak, 19, has since played in all six Nations League group matches, starting the last four, alongside Gordon, who has re-established himself as the country’s number one the age of 41 years.
“My feeling is: give him the ball,” Levein said of Doak, the Liverpool youngster currently on loan at Middlesbrough, who has assisted two goals in this month’s victories over Croatia and Poland.
“Against Croatia at Hampden, when he got the ball, the whole thing went up a notch,” Levein told BBC Scotland. “The crowd noise was fantastic.
“You have to go back a long way to find someone who is as exciting as this guy. He has a fast pace and there is something really intoxicating about that.”
“It’s cool to see that idea of just facing people and crossing the ball, or cutting inside to shoot or setting things up for other people.
“He passed Josko Gvardiol like he was a two-bob defender. He’s a bit special. He also has that lack of fear that young players bring and it becomes contagious when you see him having fun.”
Doak has made just a handful of cameos for Liverpool since arriving from Celtic at the start of 2022.
“When you’re at a club that size, you have to learn very quickly how to behave and prepare for high expectations,” Levein said.
“I think the fact that he went to Liverpool is something important. He has managed to get into the first team on occasions, now he is at Middlesbrough, which is a good choice. He needs regular football.
“Fingers crossed everything continues the way he’s going right now, because he’s a top prospect, and the excitement for me always comes from knowing that eight years from now he’ll be a lot better than he is now.”
