Spurs star Matt Doherty fails to live up to expectations yet again after shocker vs Leeds

2 minute read 2/1/2021 | 03:20pm

Tottenham Hotspur got back to winning ways in the Premier League earlier this afternoon by defeating Leeds United at home, though what should have been a perfect display was somewhat marred by one player’s performance.

Matt Doherty.

The £15m summer signing hasn’t lived up to expectations thus far in the capital, and after that display, he has it all to do to convince anyone that he should be starting over Serge Aurier.

His shocking match was epitomised by his clumsy and needless injury-time dismissal, his second booking in the space of half an hour.

Harry Kane opened the scoring for Spurs from the spot before becoming their provider for the second, feeding Heung-min Son with a deft low-cross before half-time before Toby Alderweireld’s near-post header sealed all three points.

Per SofaScore, no other player playing in white colours recorded a worse rating than the 6.4 brought in by Doherty – even seven of United’s stars managed better.

The £18m-rated Irishman committed a game-high five fouls, so the writing was really on the wall in terms of bookings, whilst he also lost possession 19 times and won only 38.9% of his duels both on the ground and in the air.

Doherty was wasteful with the ball too, making just 71% of his 35 passing attempts, of which he completed none of his three long balls and didn’t even record a single cross all game.

Alasdair Gold backed this up in his post-match ratings for football.london. He handed the 28-year-old a 5/10 and claimed he was “sloppy.”

Similarly, Dan Kilpatrick at the Evening Standard put his abysmal outing down to a “lack of confidence.”

The £65k-per-week arrival from Wolves was someone that Jose Mourinho was “so happy” to sign in the summer window as he “hates to play against him,” as per an interview with Spurs TV.

But the fact that Aurier has usurped him for much of the season shows that maybe his view has changed, and after that absolute betrayal in getting sent off, we could well see the Ivorian come back in as first-choice in the coming fixtures.

AND in other news, Spurs could finally replace Eriksen with £22.5m-rated “machine” who has the “devil” inside him…