His performances in an Ireland shirt warranted the criticism he got. His lack of effort cost us a goal in Hallgrimssons 1st game and he was rightly left out after. Fair play to him for getting his career back on track when it looked like it was just fizzling out, but lets not have revisionist history where we pretend it was wrong to say he was poor
Its really not that complicated!!!
Amen. Doherty was absolutely awful for club and country during that stretch and has had some rough patches in his career. Seems to be a difficult character to manage and/or has consistency issues.
But when he’s motivated he’s one of our most talented players. The fact most of us know his potential when he’s in the mood is what has gotten so many of us frustrated over the years. We don’t want him to fail — we are frustrated because we feel he’s not fulfilling his potential.
In any event the new Wolves manager is getting the best of him now and hopefully that translates into positive performances with Ireland.
I wonder how much better Matt Doherty would be as a centre-back, if he had played more there in his career ?
It's just one of those things that we have such strength in depth in that position, and completely lacking in quality players in other positions.
There's always an Irish player or two that the half-assed supporters go really harsh on. In my personal world it's the lads that are rugby first and soccer when we qualify for something. Doherty has been taking the brunt of that recently...probably because he's one of the few players they actually know the name of. I've seen the same play out on social media and yeah, a lot of it is from that section who seem weirdly satisfied when we lose.
Niall Quinn and O'Shea used to get similar treatment
I've criticised Doherty a lot lately but I'm equally impressed with the run of form he's on and I would expect him/ hope for him to start against Bulgaria
Cullen is the other punch bag at the moment. Has taken over the mantle from Brady. Seemingly no consideration from some quarters that his drop off in form may be down to the way we're setting up the team (two in midfield) rather than anything he's doing differently from his early caps when he was being fêted.
Watching the Wolves game tonight and I must say I'm really impressed with Doherty. One of the best players on the pitch and some lovely forward runs. O'Brien playing well too. We have a great back line if HH can get them working as unit
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