Wolves' Matt Doherty 'bypassed' for national recognition
Matt Doherty was hard done by when he didn’t make it into the PFA Team of the Year, former England star Chris Waddle believes.
Liverpool and England man Trent Alexander-Arnold got the right-back slot in the best XI of the season.
Waddle believes Doherty’s journey from the Irish league to one of the Premier League’s stand-out wing-backs is a ‘wonderful story’.
“The great thing about people like Matt Doherty he came from the Irish league,” Waddle said. “Mick McCarthy took him in and his story is a wonderful story, it’s a little bit like Andy Roberston at Liverpool.
“People thought he’s probably not going to make it and Wolves have obviously seen something in him. The Premier League doesn’t faze him, he’s gone out there and done his job, playing that wing-back role.
“I definitely agree he’s got a good case for being in the PFA team, but finishing seventh or eighth, obviously people look at the top. You look at it and the majority of that team was Liverpool and Man City, number one and two.
“That’s always going to happen, unfortunately. I’ve never been a big fan of the PFA awards and things like that because they vote at a strange time of the season and I don’t really think that a lot of players that vote look at people like Matt Doherty.
“He’s been bypassed, most people look at the top two and think, I’m picking him.
“But it doesn’t necessarily mean that Doherty hasn’t had a better season than Alexander Arnold and I’d probably say he has. He’s very unfortunate.
“I think he would definitely do well at a top-six club. I’ve watched him a lot as a wing-back and he does that job brilliantly.
"I’m sure he’d be able to play right-back in four, because you have to think a lot of teams play in a four. But Wolves play that three all the time so he’s been allowed to get the best out of him."
Chris Waddle was speaking to the Football Faithful.
