Matt Doherty’s sudden transfer move to Tottenham Hotspur raised quite a few eyebrows due to the unexpected and baffling nature of it. What was even more surprising was the transfer fee, rumoured to be somewhere around £15m.

The Irishman was a mainstay in the Wolves team under Nuno and was often hailed for his attacking output. In a setup that was increasingly reliant on wingbacks to progress and move the ball forward, Doherty had carved a niche for himself with his runs into the box which often saw him put his shooting boots on.

Doherty’s role at Wolves was not that of the usual fullback/wingback. Instead, he would often become a striker on the pitch, cutting inside from the wing to have a crack at the goal. In the two Premier League seasons that he played for Wolves, the player hit a combined 8 goals, impressive numbers for a player in his role.

Diving into his offensive numbers, Doherty was clearly one of the attacking outlets for Wolves. The player was the fourth highest within the Wolves team to be at the end of passes, only behind the strike force of Neto, Jimenez, and Jota.

While Doherty had reasonably good numbers for assists as well (3 & 5 in his last two seasons), the wingback was never a creative focal point for the Wolves team unlike his counterpart on the other wing, Adama Traore who would much rather hug the touchline.

Moving the ball forward and progressing it on the pitch is another trait that Doherty was heads and shoulders above, compared to his team with only Joao Moutinho coming remotely close to him.

While attacking fullbacks have become the norm, they have been very much limited to creating for the team, a stark contrast to Matt Doherty who often relies on his runs inside the box for goal scoring chances as we discussed above. The numbers state the same, Doherty (93) having the highest touches in the penalty box only second to Azpilicueta(95) followed by Robertson (83) and Stevens (78).

A move to Spurs has left a gaping hole in this position where Wolves don’t really have a replacement who could provide a similar output. Nelson Semedo’s transfer to Wolves does spice up things but the former Barcelona man has not really posted a similar output as to his predecessor. In his defense, the Barcelona setup did not quite rely on him to do such a job and it will be interesting to see how Nuno involves him in his own setup. Will he turn him into the next Doherty or does he have other plans with Semedo? With just two games under his belt till now, one of which where Semedo showed shades of a goal-scoring wing-back, it will be a wait and see whether Semedo can replicate Doherty’s exploits.