This 19-year-old winger is worth checking out today

International football isn’t producing the most compelling schedule at the moment. I thought I’d take a look at the South American and Asian World Cup qualifying games to spice things up a bit, but between the poor performances of teams on the bottom end and the expansion of the World Cup, there’s very little drama there. But a look at Friday’s Nations League fixtures reminded me that we’ve yet to touch upon a very fun young player who takes the pitch on Friday: Scotland and Middlesbrough’s Ben Doak.

Boro is where he plays currently, but he’s on loan from Liverpool, and he appears very much on track to win a spot in their team next year. Friend of the program Kev Lawson flagged him up to me as someone who’s performing well in the Championship this year, and oh baby does this look nice for a 19-year-old.

Doak is definitely more of a dribbler and playmaker than a goal-scorer at this point, and probably needs to improve his shooting to become a Liverpool-caliber player. He is also a bit too predictable about when and where he’s shooting from.

But Doak is, at least, not taking dumb shots.

Where he really shines is setting up his striker — and Boro’s Tommy Conway might be getting the start for Scotland on Friday as well. These are some killer key pass locations, and really good volume in 10 appearances.

It is much too early to declare Doak as the Mohamed Salah Replacement, but he is a right-winger who’s extremely talented and pretty well-rounded. Check him out against some tough competition in Croatia, and expect to see him start making Premier League appearances next season.

Games we’re watching

As usual, the men’s international break is a good time to check out some women’s football if you can’t fit it into your schedule when the men’s club schedule is running. I’ve got one good men’s match for you, though. Times and tv/streaming for your region at LiveSoccerTV.

Uruguay vs. Colombia — These teams are both looking very comfortably in the World Cup, but it’s still a high quality competitive fixture.

Chelsea vs. Manchester City — Very clearly the 2 top teams in WSL, setting the table for who’s the title favorite. Clear some time in your schedule for this one. Possibly the best women’s football match of the year.

Real Madrid vs. Barcelona — Madrid’s women’s team have stopped improving recently; Barca is the best in the world. Still worth checking out but it’s possible it’s uncompetitive.

Washington Spirit vs. Gotham FC — The first of two NWSL playoff games, and they’re a treat. All of the 4 really good regular season performers won in the first round, so we’ve got 2 banger semifinals and will end up with a very deserving champion. Trinity Rodman and Rose Lavelle are the big stars in this one.

Orlando Pride vs. Kansas City Current — Barbra Banda and Temwa Chawinga, certain to finish 1-2 in MVP voting in some order, face off. Arguably the two best goal-scorers in women’s football at the moment, not just in NWSL.

Stuff we’re reading

Another big game in WSL this weekend is Tottenham vs. Arsenal, but I’m not terribly convinced the women’s NLD is going to be competitive. Rachel Cohen at The Cutback is less dismissive and goes into whether Spurs have a shot.

Michael Caley at Expecting Goals put out his Premier League power rankings and surprise, Arsenal are probably a bit better than the table suggests.

Aidan Smith at Tactically Speaking argues that England looked like a well-balanced and tactically coherent team for the first time in a year against Greece.

Seth Vertelney at Pro Soccer Wire has takeaways from the USMNT’s win over Jamaica.

Alex Kirkland and Tim Vickery at ESPN dig into why Vinicius Jr. doesn’t perform as well for Brazil as he does for Real Madrid.

Huw Davies at Not The Top 20 looks for a solution to international window postponements in the Football League.

Fintan O’Reilly at Total Football Analysis analyzes some of the best playmaking fullbacks in Serie A.

Mark Carey at The Athletic wrote about the loan and pathways manager role, which is increasingly common and has been great for players’ careers.

Scott Willis at Cannon Stats argues that Arsenal got their summer transfer business mostly right.

Josh Williams at Distance Covered asks if Liverpool still need the midfielder they tried to sign in the summer, Martin Zubimendi.

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