Point proven: Journalist insists one Liverpool ace “shouldn’t be written off” after Bilbao showing | OneFootball

Liverpool might have sold Luis Diaz this summer, with Darwin Nunez quite possibly following him out the door, but there’s already plenty of fledgling attacking talent waiting to step up!

Rio Ngumoha has been turning numerous heads in pre-season and caught the eye once again with an outstanding solo goal inside the first 90 seconds of the friendly against Athletic Bilbao on Monday evening.

He wasn’t the only teenage Reds forward to score in the first half of Act 1 of the Anfield double header, with Ben Doak scoring our third goal shortly before the interval as his powerful shot was too hot for visiting goalkeeper Alex Padilla to handle.

Doak praised after superb showing for Liverpool

As the Scotland international was substituted for Jayden Danns 10 minutes into the second half, Lewis Bower – who provides independent coverage of the Liverpool FC academy – took to X to heap praise on the 19-year-old after his fine showing against the LaLiga side.

The journalist posted: “Delighted for Ben Doak, those who’ve followed me for a long time know I’ve insisted he shouldn’t be written off. And well, as for having Doak and Ngumoha as a pair, there mightn’t be a better pair of U20 wingers at a club in the world.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Will Doak get much of a look-in at Liverpool this season?

Doak was on loan at Middlesbrough last season and has made just 10 senior competitive appearances for Liverpool (totalling 307 minutes), and he was ruled out of last week’s friendly against Yokohama F. Marinos due to a bizarre bureaucratic issue.

The Scot could find regular first-team football hard to come by at Anfield in the short-term, with the considerable presence of Mo Salah blocking his pathway to the starting XI, but he did his reputation no harm with his 55-minute display against Athletic Bilbao.

Shortly before his goal, the 19-year-old tested Padilla with a long-range effort that the visiting goalkeeper needed to get all of his body behind, and he caused all sorts of problems for left-back Unai Gomez with his direct running.

Arne Slot will no doubt have been highly encouraged by Doak’s performance this evening, with the Liverpool youngster doing exactly what the head coach would’ve wanted by making the most of his opportunity to impress.