Pep Lijnders reveals Liverpool have discovered their own Arjen Robben as four youngsters praised

Pep Lijnders has insisted that Ben Doak will not be allowed to make a ‘side step’ at Liverpool because of the demands set by the senior players in the dressing room.

The 17-year-old winger has made barnstorming progress since arriving at the Reds from Celtic in the summer of 2022. Last season, he recorded 11 goals and eight assists at under-18, under-19 and under-21 level while he made six appearances for Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Doak is now firmly recognised as a first-team player and made his full debut in last week’s 3-1 Europa League victory over LASK. The Scotland under-21 international is also expected to start when Liverpool face Leicester City in the Carabao Cup third round on Wednesday night.

Assistant manager Lijnders was on pre-match media duty ahead of the tie. The Dutchman revealed that Doak reminds him of Marc Overmars and Arjen Robben in terms of players from his homeland. And Lijnders is confident that Doak’s career will not plateau because of the mentors he has around him.

“He’s young so a lot of things can happen,” said Lijnders. “I had the privilege to grow up in Holland so we had a long tactical coach of Johan Cruyff and they always said the most special players in the way we wanted to play in the past is the idea of having the wingers on the outside who can create one-v-one to disorganise the opposition and have this speed

“In the past, what you guys know was [Marc] Overmars, Arjen Robben. We have this culture of wingers and then if you get a young winger from Scotland who is only 17 and has this capacity to create, to reach the final line with individual skill and movement is nice to see.

“The good thing about Ben is that he comes into a squad with so much senior authority is he’ll never make a sidestep. He’s always got Robo [Andy Robertson] shouting ‘decisions’. He has this great low gravity where he can control the ball better at the highest speeds with his left and right foot. He is a really interesting player but he needs to listen to Robo, he needs to listen to Mo, Jota, Cody, Luis - all these guys who are trying to help him.

“We as a club as young players, it’s really nice for them to be in our squad and at the same level, it’s good for the older players to have young players with this hunger they can mentor. Each team who proved to be top has talent in terms of a young group like Ben Doak, Stefan [Bajcetic], Luke Chambers, Conor Bradley and then this core group of Trent Alexander, Cody [Gakpo, Curtis [Jones]and the seniors like Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah, Robertson, Alisson. That combination of talent and real experience is what we’ve always had and how we want to construct the squad.”