Nathan Clark has been speaking on the latest edition of The Extra Inch podcast about all things Tottenham Hotspur, and one of the topics that he spent some time on was Matt Doherty.
Co-panellist Chris Miller claimed that the 28-year-old played as a left-sided centre-back for over an hour in the Republic of Ireland’s most recent game.
Clark then provided his view on Doherty playing there and if he would ever be used as a centre-back by Jose Mourinho.
It seems that Clark is not surprised to see Doherty playing that role for the Republic of Ireland but barring a huge number of injuries, he can’t see the former Wolverhampton Wanderers man playing at centre-back for Spurs.
He said: “He’s played in that role before.
“There were questions over him defensively, but I think that he’s fine in his own box – I’m not surprised that he can do an ‘okay’ bit of a job at centre-back.
“I don’t see him playing any minutes there for us, unless there is some sort of complete catastrophe, but he is a defender; he can defend.”
Would you like to see Doherty at centre-back?
No, would be a waste
Yes, could be good
TIF Thoughts…
Tottenham signed Doherty in the last transfer window for £15.12m from Wolves, and he has played five club games this season and earned an average rating of 6.71 from his first three league games.
However, this is much lower than Serge Aurier’s sublime 8.92 rating but what must be remembered is that the Ivorian has only played one Premier League game this season and scored and assisted in that match, which could explain why he received such a high score.
Though Clark does not see Doherty playing as a centre-back for Spurs, it could be argued that it is good to have someone else who can play there to support the likes of Eric Dier and Davinson Sanchez.
However, Doherty has played most of his career as a right-back, and so it will be interesting to see if it is he or Aurier who starts Spurs’ next match with West Ham United.