Liverpool boss Klopp may have found his own Grealish in pre-season with Ben Doak

Jurgen Klopp is backing Darwin Nunez to have a great second season with Liverpool

Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp knows that his chances of getting Jack Grealish would be slim at best given how the £100million winger is thriving at Manchester City, but he may not care too much if teenager Ben Doak continues to impress in pre-season. The Reds boss handed another outing to the talented academy graduate and Doak did not let his manager down, scoring in a comprehensive 4-0 dismantling of Leicester on Sunday morning.

Still only 17, Doak produced a mature performance in the second half after he replaced the excellent Mohamed Salah at the break. Those were big boots to fill, given the Egyptian had laid on two assists for his team-mates Darwin Nunez and Bobby Clark.

But Doak did not disappoint as he grabbed Liverpool’s fourth goal of the game, steering a powerful header past Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.

In addition to the goal, the young Scottish winger showed why comparisons have been made with England star Grealish with his direct running and intelligent movement. The fact he was namechecked by Klopp was no coincidence as the 55-year-old hailed the attacking quartet’s ‘special’ performance in the second half.

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“We have a lot of options in the areas and the boys need to show up,” Klopp told reporters. “It’s not pressure, it’s just the situation. I think it was clear when we scored three in the first half, but second half, Cody, Dom, Luis and Ben – to be honest, that was pretty special.”

The teenager arrived from Celtic last summer and there is notable excitement about his rise from the youth team to the fringes of the first-team squad. There is no question he remains a raw talent, but Klopp’s nurturing presence means he should be able to chisel him into a fine player, and likewise, Doak’s pace and work rate will allow him to fit seamlessly into his plans.

Part of the plan could be utilising his energy to mould him into a hybrid role, which Grealish has embraced at City as the wide left player in Pep Guardiola’s 3-2-4-1 formation. Klopp experimented with a similar system last season and although they played a 4-2-3-1 against Leicester, that tactical variety could be key for Klopp, who clearly admires his talents.

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“Ben Doak, obviously nice signs, he’s with us in training again,” said Klopp earlier this summer, as quoted by the Daily Record.

“[He is a] special boy, really confident, has something nobody else delivers really. This kind of dribbling, this kind of straight-forward bravery… all these kind of things.”

There wasn’t much of Grealish to spot in his goal against Leicester. If anything, it showed Doak’s clever anticipation in the final third. As the in-swinging delivery was whipped in, all eyes were fixated on the ball – but Doak saw the space to run into and gambled that the ball would come his way, and it did.

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It might have been a rehearsed routine in training, in which case Liverpool’s set-piece coaches deserve some credit. But if he was acting on pure instinct, it shows exactly why Klopp is ready to give the teenager a bigger role in his squad in pre-season.

That may change as the new season nears, with competition for places extremely tough – Luis Diaz started the game on the bench along with Cody Gakpo. However, Klopp has always shown a tendency to give youngsters the chance to impress if they are performing beyond expectations, especially in domestic cup competitions.

Doak certainly did that against Leicester, and with more chances to impress against Bayern Munich and Darmstadt before their pre-season schedule concludes, he could work his way into the German’s thinking.

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