Liverpool’s loanees have arguably been some of the best performers the club has this season.
In particular those who went to play in the Championship. Both Lewis Koumas and Owen Beck are starting to make serious names for themselves at Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers, respectively.
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But the standout case has been Ben Doak at Middlesbrough. The 19-year old has skyrocketed his value by being one of the best players in the league so far this season.
And despite only six goal involvements in his 14 appearances so far, he is seriously starting to find form.
A look at his underlying numbers shows just how dominant he is becoming. A post from DataMB displaying a cross-referenced graph of key passes per-90 and progressive runs per-90 for players under-20 so far this season shows Doak to be, far and away, the most creative young player in the world.
Ben Doak is the best young player in the world
At around 1.65 key passes and 6.5 progressive runs, Doak is playing with a vision and lack of fear that is unparalleled by his age mates.
The two closest players statistically are the Liverpool-linked Desire Doué, who ranks 1.4 passes and 4.5 runs per-90, and Manchester City’s new signing Savinho with around 1.1 passes and 6.25 runs per-90 (although his ineffectiveness was fully on display at Anfield recently).
Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, largely acknowledged as the best under-20 player in the entire world, only holds around 1.1 key passes and 4 progressive runs per-90.
With each passing game it is becoming clearer that Liverpool have a very, very special player on their hands with Doak.
And whilst the club are currently more than sorted on the right-wing - no one could ever challenge Mo Salah - the Egyptian’s contract scenario means that Liverpool need a long-term option on that side.
Comparatively, Salah holds 1.91 key passes per-90 and progressive carries 3.9 per-90 this season. Whilst this would put him far off the right of the chart, Doak is still a much more direct runner.
But, in Ben Doak, it is becoming increasingly clear that Liverpool’s answer to the Salah question is already in-house.
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