During a video that he recently posted on his YouTube channel, Football.London journalist Alasdair Gold spent some time discussing Tottenham Hotspur’s new right-back Matt Doherty following his arrival at the North London club from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Irish right-back completed his move to Tottenham over the weekend, signing a four-year deal with the Lilywhites.
Doherty enjoyed a positive 2019/20 campaign with the Old Gold, ending the season as Wolves’ fifth-highest rated player in the Premier League, according to WhoScored, with an overall rating of 6.99 from his 36 appearances in England’s top-flight.
However, during this recent YouTube video, Gold talked about the “one weakness” in the 28-year-old right-back’s game.
He said: (7:42) “People that support Wolves have been talking to me about him, saying – ‘if there’s one weakness, perhaps he can get caught out in his defending sometimes’ – he’s more of an attacking full-back than a defensive full-back.
“What I’ve said to them is – that’s exactly what [Jose] Mourinho wants.
“Doherty plays, at Wolves, as a wing-back because they play a back three.
“He’s going to do that at Spurs, because what happens at Spurs if you’re not aware, I’m sure you are, when Spurs are in [possession], the right-back, [Serge] Aurier for now, is right up the pitch and Ben Davies, as left-back, tucks in and it becomes a back three.
“So, essentially, the right-back is kind of a wing-back in this weird Mourinho system.”
Are you worried about Doherty's defensive quality?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
So, as can be seen in what the journalist had to say, while he’s heard from Wolves supporters that Doherty can be exposed in defence at times, he believes that this won’t be a big problem for the Irishman at Spurs because his ability in attack will suit the role that Gold anticipates he will play within Mourinho’s system.
Hopefully, for Spurs fans, Gold is right and Doherty’s alleged weakness won’t be too big of a problem for him under Mourinho.