Gabby Agbonlahor has claimed that he has ‘never heard anything like it’ following Antonio Conte’s comments about not starting Matt Doherty, as he told talkSPORT.
The outspoken Tottenham boss shared that he isn’t seeing Matt Doherty ‘in the right way’ and he’s ‘not stupid and doesn’t want to lose, as a result of starting him.
This emerges after first-choice wing-back Emerson Royal was sent off against Arsenal in the north London derby over the weekend, which leaves Conte with a selection headache ahead of their Premier League clash at Brighton – Will he start Matt Doherty?
Summer signing Djed Spence has only played one minute of football this term and the 22-year-old Englishman clearly isn’t fancied by his highly-demanding coach.
On the other hand, Doherty ended the previous campaign very well, before injury at Aston Villa in April put an end to that, played havoc with his pre-season training, and since then, he’s only played 26 minutes of football across all competitions.
It’s clear that the Republic of Ireland international isn’t ready from a physical standpoint, and the first thing Conte demands is that you are prime ready for the gruelling work he wants you to produce, as Agbonlahor was left stunned by the Italian’s claims about his own player.
“He has said about Doherty ‘I don’t want to play him because I don’t want to lose’,” said Agbonlahor.
“I mean talk about putting a player down. I’ve never heard anything like it. That’s Doherty not going to be playing unless it’s a really easy game.
“Imagine, you are Doherty in the canteen, you are having a bit of lunch and the players are winding you up about what the gaffer said ‘he said he’s not playing you because he doesn’t want to lose’.
“What does that say about a defender?”
DOHERTY LACKS MATCH SHARPNESS
This isn’t a case of quality, but Doherty just lacking match sharpness because injury has messed him about since April and he’s still trying to play catch-up.
The £15 million player’s (Guardian) issue is that it’s very difficult to play that under a coach who asks for so much of his players and would never start an individual when he knows they can’t go through 90 minutes of pure torture.
The ex-Wolves man has proven he can do just that, and perform, under Conte, it’s just a case of him not being ready now because he’s trying to find that sharpness.
He needs to be out on the pitch to do that, but Conte’s not taking that risk, so he needs to clearly find something in training, or else he will continue to warm the bench.
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