Vitor Pereira has proven to be a fantastic managerial appointment by Wolves – and one star has heaped praise on the Portuguese for one decision he made on him.
Vitor Pereira is the darling of Molineux, after turning around the club’s fortunes over the past few months.
Wolves were in a world of trouble under Gary O’Neil, and looked certain for a relegation battle.
But Pereira came in and took everything in his stride, and preserved Wolves’ Premier League status with five games to spare.
One of the biggest things he did to turn things around at Wolves was to make the team more solid.
The backline is far more steely these days, with the signing of Emmanuel Agbadou a complete game-changer.
But his supporting cast have also been very good – and Matt Doherty has paid tribute to Pereira for tweaking his position.
Matt Doherty thankful to Vitor Pereira over position change at Wolves
Wolves came into the new season playing with a back four.
That system was soon changed to Wolves’ tried-and-tested formation that was so successful under Nuno Espirito Santo, and Pereira has been keen to stick with that.
Matt Doherty has been the man to play on the right of the three, operating then when Wolves were short defensively.
But he’s done so well, the Irishman has stayed there – and he is hugely thankful to Pereira for giving him a new lease of life.
He said in a video on the Sky Sports Premier League YouTube channel: “Big new lease of life, absolutely love it there. Shout out to him for seeing that vision.
“I couldn’t be happier to do it. Leave the lads ahead of me to go and try and win the game for us and yeah, I’m absolutely loving that position and couldn’t be happier to play there. You’re always getting loads of touches of the ball, you feel like you’re in the game all the time. I’m really really enjoying it.”
Doherty has be an unsung hero for Wolves this season
Agbadou and Toti Gomes have been getting most of the plaudits recently regarding Wolves’ improvement in defence.
But Doherty certainly deserves his flowers for making that position on the right his own.
It wasn’t something anyone really saw coming. Doherty had played that position the odd time before, but certainly, it was a very alien role for him.
But as the weeks have gone on since he first started playing the position in December, Doherty has looked more and more comfortable, and from his comments, he clearly loves it.
And it’s clearly something the manager feels is working, with Pereira full of praise for Doherty and his personality, after the FA Cup defeat to Bournemouth.
Doherty is 33 now and has obviously spent a large part of his career playing as a wing-back or full-back.
But this switch to a right-sided centre-back role genuinely might just be something that helps him to prolong his career. It is little wonder the player is so happy.