Liverpool have handed Middlesbrough FC a serious weapon | OneFootball

Ben Doak has been a revelation for Boro since his Deadline Day loan move from Anfield.

Liverpool loanee Ben Doak has been a revelation for Middlesbrough since his summer Deadline Day loan move to the Riverside Stadium.

The Scotland international put pen to paper on a season-long loan switch to Boro in the final hours of the summer transfer window, as Michael Carrick looked to put the finishing touches to a strong few months of recruitment.

Understood to have been wanted by numerous Premier League sides, the Teessiders will have been under no illusion that they'd pulled off a significant coup by landing the highly-rated teenage winger, and that gut feeling has been proven right through the early stages of his Middlesbrough career.

Carrick and his coaching staff will no doubt have some extra Christmas cards to send this winter, but that won't bother them at all should Doak take his recent form into the remainder of the 2024/25 season, as he could well make all the difference in their Premier League promotion push.

It can be easy to forget at times just how much of a difference one single player can make to a team. If anyone on Teesside had forgotten in that regard, Doak is certainly proving to be a valuable reminder.

Many Teessiders thought they'd never again see a winger come close to replicating what they'd witnessed Adama Traore do in a Middlesbrough shirt, but those skeptics will be fully-fledged believers after Doak's recent display at Carrow Road.

The Scotsman collected the ball from the edge of his own box after a Norwich City corner was cleared, and proceeded to press the fast-forward button down almost the entire length of the pitch, speeding down the left wing before playing in Anfernee Dijksteel, who then put the ball on a plate for Tommy Conway to give Boro the lead.

It was one of the counter-attacking goals of the season so far, as Doak's balance, speed, dribbling ability and intelligence were all on full display over the course of the move.

He would continue to run the Canaries ragged all afternoon, picking up an unofficial assist for Middlesbrough's third goal, but his importance to the team was perhaps made most evident after his withdrawal.

Doak was replaced by Isaiah Jones with 71 minutes on the clock, and a 3-1 lead on the scoreboard. In the nine minutes that followed, Carrick's side conceded twice, gifting away what would've been a hard-fought and deserved three points.

Doak has cemented himself as one of first names on Carrick's teamsheet

After crowning his full Middlesbrough debut with a goal and a 2-0 win over Stoke City on 28 September, Doak has not looked back since.

He's now firmly placed himself as the man to displace on Carrick's right wing, having now relegated an out-of-form Jones to a backup role.

Largely being told to get chalk on his boots, Doak is seemingly always in space to receive the ball on the right, and his teammates aren't wasting time when it comes to getting him the ball.

The young winger has quickly become Middlesbrough's primary attacking outlet, and although the sheer volume of attacks that run through him means Boro run the risk of becoming one-dimensional, if nobody can stop Doak from imposing his will and hurting teams - which few have been able to - then that won't be a worry for Carrick.

Middlesbrough's biggest issue may be finding the right balance in terms of workload, and keeping him fit, as they'll want him at his razor-sharp best as much as possible.

Liverpool boss Arne Slot is keeping a close eye on Doak's progress

Boro won't have had much hope of keeping Doak's talent a secret after seeing his recent performances, but they might've held out belief that Liverpool boss Arne Slot will have been too focused on his new role at Anfield to pay much attention to his young winger's fortunes on Teesside.

Well, thanks to the Dutch coach's recent comments, those hopes will have been dashed too and may have in fact struck fear into them instead.

Speaking via the Daily Record in his pre-match press conference ahead of their Carabao Cup clash with Brighton, Slot stated: "In certain situations, you'd prefer to keep (the young players) here because then they can train with you and you can implement in the best possible way your playing style, but if that means they hardly play then it doesn't lead to the progression you are hoping for. That is the balance we always try to find.

"Some players we let on loan, Stefan Bajcetic is a good example of that, then you hope to see he plays a lot and has already played a few games. It's pleasing that he went to a very good manager in Pep Lijnders that knows this club also."

Slot then jokingly said on Doak: "For Ben Doak it is similar (at Middlesbrough), he also went to a very good manager and a very good playing style. Do we want to play them on a regular basis, or once in a while keeping them with us? We have to be aware of our own interests, we can't let everyone go who doesn't play all the time.

"We have six forwards, two of them are injured and only have four left, with the schedule we have, that's sometimes a worry for me. Maybe we should bring Ben Doak back!"

Whilst that may have been a tongue-in-cheek comment from the Liverpool boss, Doak's progress has evidently not gone unnoticed at Anfield, and his comments may just have drawn sweat on the foreheads of everyone connected with Middlesbrough Football Club.