Antonio Conte believes Matt Doherty has ‘improved a lot’ in numerous areas since he took charge of Tottenham Hotspur and revived the defender’s Spurs career, via football.london.
Doherty only moved to north London from Wolves in the summer 2020 window in a £15m deal. But Daniel Levy sacking Jose Mourinho and then allowing Nuno Espirito Santo to sign Emerson Royal from Barcelona for £26m put the Republic of Ireland star’s future in doubt.
Mourinho, nor his interim successor Ryan Mason, favoured Doherty throughout his debut season at Tottenham, either. The 30-year-old only started 13 of 17 Premier League games and offered just two assists. He has already laid on four and netted one in nine with Conte.
Doherty had to bide his time to earn Conte’s trust after failing to win Nuno over during the Portuguese’s tenure. He featured for just seven-minutes as a late substitute on the opening day of the season, and would not play again until Conte’s debut at the helm in November.
Chances have remained infrequent for Doherty under Conte, with the Italian only starting the 25-cap full-back four times so far. But scoring and assisting against Leeds United and netting twice to help beat Everton seems to have won the Irishman the starting role now.
Conte feels Tottenham star Doherty has ‘improved a lot’ under his watch
Doherty may not have had the opportunity to win Conte over had the Tottenham boss got his way in January. Spurs had agreed a four-year contract with Adama Traore to join from Wolves as a new right-back option, per Dean Jones, before he opted for Barcelona instead.
Wolves also sought to replace Traore with Doherty, with the Express citing Bruno Lage’s as submitting an offer. The Athletic also reported the two clubs discussed a player-plus-cash exchange. Conte was desperate for a new option who gave more than Emerson in attack.
Doherty has since delighted Conte with the development he has made in training and over Tottenham’s recent fixtures. With the Italian detailing the areas he feels he has improved.
“For sure, Matt is a player that improved a lot from when I arrived,” Conte said. “We work, we work hard. On the tactical aspect, on the physical aspect, with the video, analysis video. During this process, there are players that improve more quickly than the others.
“Matt, I think, he improved a lot in these four-and-a-half-months. Now, he is showing also personality, to be confident. For me, with this system, wing-backs are very, very important, very important, and to have this improvement is good.
“But at the same time, also the other players showed improvement… For sure, my task is to improve every single player. I am happy when we finish the season and I see my players improve their performances and their football knowledge.”
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