Optimistic Clarke eager to hand Liverpool youngster his chance
Steve Clarke sees what the rest of us see in Ben Doak: lightning pace, skill, desire, strength and unpredictability. Hence the uncapped Liverpool teenager taking a wildcard entry into Scotland’s provisional squad for the European Championship. Although reticent when it comes to overhyping him, Clarke knows Doak can be dangerous as an unknown quantity at Euro 2024.
It is unusual for a player’s first full international call-up to be for a major tournament. Even more so a player who has not managed a single competitive appearance since December. Doak’s talent is rare, though, his potential enormous; he would have already been in the Scotland squad but for a knee injury ending his club season prematurely.
Now there are training sessions and two friendly fixtures – Gibraltar in Faro and Finland at Hampden Park – for Doak and the rest of Clarke’s initial 28-man squad to impress. The opening fixture at the Euros against Germany is just over three weeks away.
“Ben is fit and back training with his club,” said Clarke. “He did a little bit with the team last week and we will speak to his club. We will keep in touch with them and, from the two games, the first game might come a little bit too soon. Maybe in the second game he can get some minutes on the pitch, if I choose to do that.”
Clarke hasn’t spoken to the outgoing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp or Doak yet.
“No, no. I speak to my captain,” he said, mindful that Andy Robertson sees the 18-year-old at training every day. “I didn’t speak to him [before announcing the squad]. We keep it exciting by just putting it out and they find out their own way, but not from me. The only people I speak to are the players I feel I should phone because they have missed out on the squad. Obviously, I also speak to the four injured boys.”
As demonstrated with Billy Gilmour at the last European Championship three years ago, Clarke has no issue introducing burgeoning youngsters to international football when the stakes are at their highest. He also included Patterson and David Turnbull in his squad back then.
“I looked at Nathan coming through at Rangers at the time, Billy was obviously somebody I had known for a long time with him coming through at Chelsea, and David at that time was breaking into the Celtic team. They were ready to join the squad.
“You are going back three years, so I was still trying to build this group, I was still looking for people to come in, looking for people to make us better and expand the group. They fitted in a little bit better.
At this stage, Ben is the young one who catches my eye, if I am being honest. He has got something – attributes that we don’t have in the squad. His searing pace would be one of them. He has still got a lot to learn, as do all the young boys when you bring them in. Everyone has got to learn. Ben hopefully will be big player for us in the future, and maybe this summer he can make a little contribution as well. I think it becomes a danger if you put too much pressure on a young boy who is still learning the game and making his way in the game. It is nice that he is involved in the squad, but let’s just keep a lid on things and hope that he develops and turns out to be the talent that we think and hope he can be.”
Injuries to Scotland players have been relentless in recent months. Midfielder Lewis Ferguson, forward Jacob Brown, plus right-backs Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson will all miss the tournament in Germany. That made squad selection challenging for Clarke.
“I think it was actually more difficult. We lost four players who probably would have been in the squad,” he said. “We now need to find four replacements and I have a number of players who are either returning to play or not playing very often at their clubs. You have to look at them and think: ‘Okay how do we get them in? How do we assess their fitness? How do we know their fitness?’ So there are still one or two doubts, even as we go into the last 10 days before we get to the final selection of 26. That was the reason for the slightly bigger squad. It was just to give me a little bit of time to assess one or two different people and hopefully come up with the right choice at the end.”
Ryan Jack, Grant Hanley and Stuart Armstrong join Doak as players who recently regained fitness and who probably won’t be 100 per cent in time for Euro 2024 starting.
“There are four coming back from injury or not playing regularly at their clubs. There are one or two we need to keep an eye on,” admitted Clarke. “Ross McCrorie coming into the squad as a new uncapped player is something else to look at. James Forrest is coming in as well, so there are one or two things still swimming around my head. It’s not quite the tumble dryer it was last week, it’s a little bit calmer than that.
“I think we should be fantastically positive about the
[Doak] did a little bit with the team last week and we will speak to [Liverpool]
squad. Somebody asked me about the difference between this squad and the last squad going to a major tournament. The biggest difference is experience and the number of caps. The core group we tried to build and take forward are there. The number of caps is much healthier and hopefully we can go this time and make a little bit of history for Scottish football.”