Former Wolves winger Jordan Graham has hailed Matt Doherty as ‘perfect to have in your team’, but believes his former teammate is in a tricky spot right now.
Doherty was Wolves’ second signing of last summer, joining the club as a free agent after goalkeeper Tom King.
It was something of a surprise that Doherty moved back to Wolves, considering he had so much success playing as a wing-back in his first spell with the club, but Wolves had changed to a back four.
Of course now, Wolves are playing with wing-backs again – but despite that, Doherty hasn’t been able to make himself a regular starter since coming back.
That is because Nelson Semedo has been excellent this season. But Graham – having previously played with the Republic of Ireland international – has praised the 32-year-old for what he brings to the squad…
Jordan Graham hails Matt Doherty but feels former Wolves teammate is in ‘difficult’ spot
Graham had a five-year spell at Wolves from 2015 to 2020 and so, he was at the club while Doherty was in his first stint at Molineux.
He therefore knows him well, and Graham was speaking about him on the Wolves Weekly podcast.
Doherty has found minutes tricky to come by in his first season back at Molineux, although he has sometimes played on the left side in the absence of Rayan Ait-Nouri ahead of Hugo Bueno. O’Neil admitted earlier this season that Doherty was ‘disappointed’ by his lack of minutes.
But he has just been unable to get in over Semedo on that right side.
Despite this, Graham reckons Wolves still have at least a brilliant professional on their hands. He said: “Hell of a guy. Hell of a player. Love playing with him and love him off the pitch and off it. Just a great pro, a great guy. Just perfect to have in your team. He can start, I think Doc can start in that team to be honest.
“I think it’s difficult with Semedo because he’s been brilliant. But it isn’t bad cover to have Matt Doherty.”
Tricky for Doherty but Semedo’s minutes have been fully warranted
Doherty has made 25 appearances for Wolves this season, but he has mostly come on as a substitute in games. He has actually only played a total of 980 minutes.
Unfortunately for him, Semedo has just gone to another level this season at right wing-back and is pretty much undroppable right now, with Gary O’Neil extremely taken by him.
But £50,000-a-week star Doherty clearly still holds value, having been deployed on the left over Bueno a few times and having come on in most games in which he hasn’t started.
He just needs to be ready in the event of any injury for Semedo. He’s been so good, and it will be important that there is as little drop-off as possible in case he becomes unavailable.