Tottenham have completed the signing of Matt Doherty from Wolves for a reported £15 million.
The move gathered pace in the last 48 hours and he has now been confirmed as a Spurs player by tottenhamhotspur.com.
Jose Mourinho has been desperate to sign a new right-back due to Serge Aurier’s defensive frailties. He has finally found his man.
The Republic of Ireland international has been one of Wolves’ key players for the last number of years. He has made the right wing-back position his own in Nuno Espirito Santo’s 3-5-2 formation.
Doherty made a total of 302 appearances for the club, scoring 28 goals and assisting 41 more.
📰 We are delighted to announce the signing of @mattdoherty20 from Wolverhampton Wanderers! #WelcomeDoherty ⚪️ #COYS
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 30, 2020
In 2019/20, Doherty played 36 Premier League games, scoring four goals and getting three assists.
This transfer will also be great news for his first professional club. Dublin side Bohemians inserted a 10% sell-on clause when they sold him to Wolves so are set for a financial windfall, per RTE.
Aurier, on the other hand, seems to be on his way out of the club.
Sky Sports report than Bayer Leverkusen, AS Monaco and AC Milan.
Kyle Walker-Peters has already left the club, signing for Southampton as part of the deal to bring Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg to North London.
Is Doherty the right fit for Jose?
There is no doubt whatsoever that Matt Doherty is a fantastic right wing-back.
But there must be some concerns about how he will fare in a back four. This is simply because he has not played there regularly for a number of years now.
He has played there for his country, but not all that often – he only has nine caps, some of which have come playing as a right-winger.
Much of Doherty’s game at Wolves was actually based on getting into the box and scoring goals. He is very efficient in the air, both from an attacking and defensive sense.
However, he has numerous traits that clearly stood out to Jose Mourinho.
The manager likes to play with one attacking fullback and one more conservative one. Doherty is the ideal man to fill the attacking role.
At 28-years-old, Doherty has the experience and personality that Mourinho likes in his players. This does mean that Spurs won’t get very long out of him, but he should do a good job for a few years at least.
Doherty might get caught out of position at times, but he is much less likely than Aurier to have a defensive meltdown.
He will have to adapt his positioning to some extent. While he will be able to get forward, he won’t have a right centre-back to cover him. His starting position will be a fair bit deeper.
When he does manage to adapt, he should prove to be a good player for Spurs.
