The club’s all-time leading scorer has spoken out about the new addition.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ all-time leading scorer has spoken out about one of the club’s summer acquisitions who he believes should be in the starting eleven.
Gary O’Neil, the new manager of Wolves, has had a difficult start to life at Molineux. His reign began just days before the campaign began. With only one win in his first four league games, the former Bournemouth manager must be wishing he had a full pre-season to impose his theories on the team.
Currently 15th in the Premier League, club veteran Steve Bull has identified summer signing Matt Doherty as a guy O’Neil should look to in order to turn around his team’s fortunes.
What has Bull said about Matt Doherty?
Bull, who set a record with 306 goals for the Old Gold, used his Express & Star column to examine his former club’s defensive flaws and how deploying Doherty could lead to attack being the greatest form of defense.
Bull stated, ”
“Gary O’Neil is still dipping his toe in the water with the team right now, and it will take some time, but if it were up to me, I’d switch to a back three.”
“We’re getting caught off guard with a back four.” Doherty is on the bench as a wing-back, but he causes more difficulties in the opposing box than in ours, therefore he needs to come on.”
When looking at his stats, Bull’s argument that Doherty is a forward danger from wingback is accurate.
Despite playing in a more defensive area of the pitch, Doherty has achieved 71 goal contributions (30 goals and 41 assists) in 303 games for the club.
The 31-year-old’s stats for Wolves are higher than Nelson Semedo’s whole career. According to FBref, Semedo, the team’s only other natural right-sided wing-back, has a lower tackle percentage (56% to Doherty’s 58.6%) and has made less interceptions (157 to Doherty’s 193).
A constant performer for Wolves, the Irish “machine” – as described by The Athletic’s Tim Spiers – also featured in Sofascore’s top nine Premier League performers for Wolves in both of his previous seasons (2018/19 and 2019/20).
When did Matt Doherty return to Wolves?
The Irishman returned to the club where he made his reputation on a free transfer in July.
Having previously been a significant member of Wolves’ return to the top flight of English football in 2018, the wing-back has left to join Tottenham on a four-year contract.
The announcement video, in which Doherty poked fun at tweets he made that exposed him as an Arsenal fan in his youth, was arguably the highlight of this trade.
*Delete* 😬
#WelcomeDoherty ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/dNRuGv6DTI— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 30, 2020
Doherty departed Tottenham and followed in the footsteps of Kieran Trippier, who joined Atletico Madrid from the north London club.
After a disappointing season in Spain, the £5m-rated dynamo will be hoping to regain the form that made him an FPL favourite in his peak. Of course, his major aim will be assisting Wolves in gaining more points in order to climb the Premier League rather than gaining points in fantasy football.
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