Ben Doak reflects on Liverpool game time, being team-mates with Andy Robertson, and Scotland progression

Scotland Under-21 winger Ben Doak believes his increased involvement with Liverpool’s first team will take his game to new heights.

The highly-regarded 17-year-old moved to Anfield from Celtic last year and has already made eight appearances for Jurgen Klopp’s team, including his first two starts for the Reds last month.

“I was with them (the first team) a little bit last season, but now I’m properly training with them every day and just trying to learn from them all because some of them are the best in the world,” Doak told the Scottish Football Association ahead of Friday’s European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Hungary at Fir Park.

“It’s a challenge I need to live up to and rise to. It comes from learning from them. That’s how I’m going to get up to their level.”

Scotland's Ben Doak during an Under-21's training session at the Oriam, on October 11, 2023, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

Doak can now count Scotland captain Andy Robertson as a team-mate. “He’s done everything in the game,” said the teenager. “He’s won everything. He keeps me grounded.”

Doak made his Scotland Under-21 debut just over a year ago away to Northern Ireland.

“It was quite intimidating at first because I hadn’t been away with the Under-21s before, but the lads were good and I settled in really quickly,” said Doak, who is set to win his fourth under-21 cap on Friday.

“We’ve got a good group. We’ve been together a few times now and we’re all getting to know each other. There’s a really good feel about the place.”

The young Scots suffered an agonising start to their Euro 2025 campaign when they conceded a late goal to lose 1-0 away to Spain last month.

Doak is adamant they can take heart from that outing in Jaen as they bid to get their campaign up and running with back-to-back home games against Hungary and then Malta on Monday.

“We pushed one of the best teams in the world at this level right to the very end,” he said. “We were gutted to concede when we did, but we can take a lot of positives from it and hopefully go and win the game on Friday.

“If we won last month it really would have helped us, but these games are at home so everything’s on our terms so that’s where we need to be getting our points.”