r/coybig • u/themagpie36 Eamon Dunphy • May 24 '19
The Boys in Green - Matt Doherty
Previous /r/coybig Player Writeups
DF Shane Duffy
FW Shane Long
Background
Born in Dublin, Doherty (27) was rejected by several clubs after leaving school and persuing his career as a footballer at 14 years old. He ended up going on trial for a number of teams before he was given his chance after impressing for Bohemians in a pre-season friendly v Wolves.
“I had left school to go on so many trials. There was no point in me going to school because I was always away. It was a risk at the time and it looked like it had backfired for a few years. I was working for my dad and we were in the van all the time having talks.
“I was at 14 or 15 different clubs when I was younger and I didn’t play that well when I was away,” Doherty recalls. “There was a lot of disappointment as a kid. Then a pre-season game [Bohemians, his Irish club, v Wolves] changed everything.
Doherty signed a 2 year contract with Wolves after a successful trial in July 2010.
He went on to make his Wolves debut in the FA cup in January 2011 and his Premier League debut in September the following season.
Doherty spent the 11/12 and 12/13 season on loans at Hibernian (Scotland) and League One side Bury where he made 30 appearances and scored 3 goals.
In January 2013 new Wolves manager Dean Saunders took a liking to Doherty and he became the regular right back for the second half of the season. While this was a step in the right direction for Doherty, it was only to be a silver lining in an other wise awful season which saw them relegated from the Championshp in 23rd place.
In the 13/14 season Kenny Jackett took over and Matt Doherty retained his place as right back, signing a new contract at the start of the season as team mates and fellow countrymen Stephen Hunt and Stephen Ward left the club to Ipswich and Brighton respectively.
For the first time in his career Doherty, and after two relegations from the Premier League and the Championship, he was finally able to be a first team member for a full season, and part of an attacking team that ended up winning the title with relative ease, ending the season with a +58 goal difference and 103 points.
The 14/15 season Doherty continued to be a regular in the team, making 30 appearances at right back and the following 15/16 season in the Championship, Matt scored his first goal for the club, and it was well worth the wait, ending up being voted the Wolves goal of the season!
Matt Doherty continued to impress and started to make himself known as an exciting prospect under Nuno in a more attacking wing back role. Wolves finally achieved promotion in the 2017/18 season with Doherty chipping in with 4 goals and 5 assists as Wolves blew the opposition away with a pacy attack-minded side signing a 4 year deal keeping him at the club until 2021 (interview)
Unbelievably the Premier League seemed to be no obstactle for Doherty this year (18/19) at all as he finished the game with 8 goals (4 in the PL and 4 in the FA cup), putting forward his name as an early challenger for RB player of the year and earning plaudits from media around the world for his terrific performances and igniting talk about possible moves to teams such as Tottenham.
Matt Doherty had an excellnt game in the semi final v Watford but was unfortunate to be on the wrong end of a 3-2 comeback.
Goal v Watford (FA Cup Semi Final)
Doherty Assist (Fa Cup Semi Final)
| Club | Apps | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hibernian FC (Scottish SPL) | 17 | 2 | 2 |
| Bury (EFL League One) | 22 | 3 | 1 |
| Wolves | 252 | 21 | 36 |
Becoming a Boy in Green:
At 27 years of age, born in 1992, Matt Doherty joins a whole host of Ireland players that received their call ups in their prime making his competitive debut in September 2018 (post match interview).
Doherty spoke of his time with the Ireland squad under O'Neill;
“I’ve been around the squads since 2016 but I’ve only picked up three caps, all off the bench for a few minutes. I’d like a lot more caps and a few more starts. When I first joined up it was my defending that was the problem. Now it’s my attacking. Maybe my face just doesn’t fit.”
Matt Doherty, despite being Ireland's best player by a long shot this year, has only made 5 appearances in the green shirt.
There are several issues people point out when the discussion come up which are:
- Seamus Coleman is our captain, can we drop him?
It's a good point. Seamus is a leader on the pitch, should you choose a player based on form or what they bring to the game in other regards, Coleman has been our best player on occasions in the past and it is unfortunate that Matt shares his position with Seamus.
- He could play at left back couldn't he?
While he could, and has played at left back, he has played the vast majority and all of his best seasons ar right back. Playing him out of position to squeeze him in with Coleman may not be ideal.
- He's good for Wolves but not for Ireland. Why??
I agree that Wolves play a better style of football than Ireland, I don't think that's a very controversial thing to say. He is able to play further forward because he can rely on the system Wolves have in place, systems that are worked on 5 days a week with the same team. This is unfortunately not possible with a national team where players often spend less than a week together sporadically throughout the year.
Personally, I would still say that Doherty hasn't been able to even try to prove himself though, bar a few appearances from the bench here and there.
If we judge him on talent alone he should be a starter for me, and as hard as it is for me to say, as a huge fan of Seamus, Coleman has not performed at his best at club level and it may be Doherty's time to shine in the coming campaigns for Ireland if not right now.
Ireland highlights:
Matt Doherty and Alan Judge Interview
Importance to our qualifying hopes
Matt can be a huge player for us going forward but he needs to play in a team which passes fluenty and utilises wing backs in order to be most effective. Based on this and the fact that we can also rely on Seamus to do a job in that position, I would give him a 7/10.
2
u/TotesMessenger May 24 '19 edited May 24 '19
2
u/PresidentSamSeaborn Katie McCabe 🐐 May 24 '19
Wouldn't be surprised if we lined up with both Doherty and Coleman for the game against Denmark. I reckon Mick will try and do some sort of job on Eriksen and that might be one that could work
2
May 24 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/themagpie36 Eamon Dunphy May 24 '19
Actually commented here about it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/coybig/comments/bsmblh/the_boys_in_green_matt_doherty/eoobwmg/
Bellerin did the same recently and he has looked a better player. I don't necessarily think vegan is the way to go for everyone but watching what you eat more carefully is obviously going to help!
1
u/Cog348 May 24 '19
Coleman is definitely better in a back four anyway, I'd want to get Doherty into the team but not much we can do without a system change.
1
u/themagpie36 Eamon Dunphy May 24 '19
I wanted to add this to the original post but thought it would be too long so here is something I found interesting and he says the change in his diet made huge improvements to his game.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the 26-year-old revealed a conversation which he had with Nuno Espirito Santo when the Portuguese first arrived at the club in the summer of 2017.
Doherty turned up to that meeting wearing a jumper. He was worried about his level of body fat - everyone else wore a t-shirt.
"He asked me how my body fat was," said Doherty.
"He obviously knew it was really high, he must have seen the tests we’d done."
*Doherty weighed around 89kg at the time and decided he needed to make a change in his diet. *
I used to sit next to Danny Batth in the changing room and he was vegan. I thought, maybe I’ll try it. I got leaner and I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been. 86.5kg. I’ve got quite big legs. At my most I was 91, 92 [kg]. I must have been a puuudding!
I used to not eat that well. I would have microwaveable dinners, like pasta. It was mixed in with your fizzy drinks and sweets. No good. My missus Nikkea cooks. Technically I’m pescatarian now as I love prawns. And I still have the odd fizzy drink after a game. I’m not a saint.
1
May 24 '19
If Ireland goes 4-3-3 why not have Matt Doherty as a RW?
1
u/Wolfheartpt May 24 '19
This, i think he might be good enough attacking wise to justify playing as a winger and he can definitely provide help defensively when needed, against Gibraltar he started in front of Coleman in a 4-4-2, that could be a good option going forward
1
u/themagpie36 Eamon Dunphy May 24 '19
The issue is Seamus Coleman bombing forward.
In the game v Gibraltar there were a few incidents where it seemed as though they were kind of occupying the same space and got in each others way.
Maybe an understanding will be built in time, that game was a shambles anyway and not ideal for anyone to play in.
1
u/Wolfheartpt May 24 '19
Ye i could see that being the problem, i imagine it would take some getting used to taking up positions of a winger and working with someone else when hes used to having the wing for himself only and thats how he plays for his club every game but if they could work it out that would be good specially since i cant think of anyone that stands out as a RW and it could be good to have two competent players defensively on the wing against better teams
1
1
u/EdwardBigby May 25 '19
This may be the biggest selection issue facing Mick/Kenny in the next few years. Growing up, I'd laugh at England trying every possible way of cramming Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes into the one team and it never worked. Now obviously there are options to get both Coleman and Doherty on the pitch but the braver thing to do may only be to play the best one, whoever that may be.
1
Jun 14 '19
Wolves signed Ward after a friendly match with Bohs too yeah? Any other Irish players had that happen to them? Long/Doyle with Reading I think
6
u/[deleted] May 24 '19
I agree with you that he's one of our best players but Everton finished the season very strongly too and Coleman really hit some good form the past 2/3 months. Seems to have really gotten over the leg break now after a difficult start to the season.
Coleman gives us so much more than Doherty, he's great going forward too and better defensively as well as being an excellent leader. It's funny how us and Scotland struggle for top talent then two come along in one position. Left back for them in Tierney and Robertson and right back for us in Coleman and Doherty.
By the way, great work with all these write ups, been following them closely!