He is one of those players that just does the simple things well and keeps things ticking over, never flashy just always in the right place to break up play and play the simple ball to start momentum building.
He's definitely found his feet in that holding role now.
Absolutely. Two things that have really changed our fortunes are the performances of Docherty and especially Coventry. I remember saying early in the season that he was hiding. He didn't want the ball and when he did get it he had no confidence to do anything positive with it. His game was full of sideways and backwards passing. Contrast to him now. He wants the ball ALL of the time. If we lose it. He gets it back. And when he gets it back he's so much more intelligent with it. A key cog in this side now and I'd be devastated if we lost him for any reason.
Funny isn't it, soon as we stopped hoofball, and play some football, all of sudden we have good footballers.. Would be interested to hear from all those negative people again..
Josh Cullen reincarnated... poty for me so far. Mr consistent, does the basics and keeps us ticking. Thought he was motm again tonight
You’d have been laughed at for making this comparison three months ago.
I was making the same comparison 3 months ago. Quality little player... funny what happens when you keep the ball on the deck and play some football, eh
It's the power of width in advanced areas. Earlier in the season he and Docherty were absolutely stuck because every time they got the ball their options were to play it backwards to the defence, level to Ramsay or Edwards who weren't far enough forward (or try and hit Small on the run who would be our most advanced player up the left wing), or hit it up to the strikers' faces. Opposition teams didn't have to stretch at all to accommodate us and we relied on gaps forming late in games through opposition fatigue instead of our movement. Now that TC and Small offer width high and carry the ball up the wing teams have to drop off to guard against their pace and that creates space for our midfield to actually play football.
Docherty at the start of the season was trying to meet Ramsay deep in our half for one-twos to get him moving forward and Coventry preferred to keep possession within the team instead of lumping it to nowhere. Problem was he'd give it backwards to Jones, Gillesphey or Mitchell who would do the hoofing for him. Now when Coventry gets the ball he's got options everywhere and he uses them well. Now Docherty is able to move into spaces that weren't there before and get things moving. He can run with the ball because there are gaps to run into and he can interplay with the wide players in the opposition half because there are wide players in the opposition half. Both our goals yesterday came about because Docherty forced the issue; he read the defence's passing and switched his press to the third man (who fell over) and then took it past him and played it to TC for the penalty and the second goal was him finding space to drive a header at goal that was unlucky not to go in and led to the corner we scored from. Before that he played in Berry for his hit off the post and won a header as the ball came back from that to return possession to us which led to Godden's saved flick. Give footballers a bit of space to work in and they'll be much better
I think even if we had paid West Ham six figures to sign him he'd still be a class signing. But to get him on a free with a sell on is looking like the only good thing Appleton did for the club.
If we do go up I expect he'd handle the step up with ease.
Comments
Two things that have really changed our fortunes are the performances of Docherty and especially Coventry.
I remember saying early in the season that he was hiding.
He didn't want the ball and when he did get it he had no confidence to do anything positive with it. His game was full of sideways and backwards passing.
Contrast to him now.
He wants the ball ALL of the time. If we lose it. He gets it back. And when he gets it back he's so much more intelligent with it.
A key cog in this side now and I'd be devastated if we lost him for any reason.
Brilliant again tonight, he was absolutely everywhere.
Call performances as you see them @Leuth, without fear or favour...
Docherty at the start of the season was trying to meet Ramsay deep in our half for one-twos to get him moving forward and Coventry preferred to keep possession within the team instead of lumping it to nowhere. Problem was he'd give it backwards to Jones, Gillesphey or Mitchell who would do the hoofing for him. Now when Coventry gets the ball he's got options everywhere and he uses them well. Now Docherty is able to move into spaces that weren't there before and get things moving. He can run with the ball because there are gaps to run into and he can interplay with the wide players in the opposition half because there are wide players in the opposition half. Both our goals yesterday came about because Docherty forced the issue; he read the defence's passing and switched his press to the third man (who fell over) and then took it past him and played it to TC for the penalty and the second goal was him finding space to drive a header at goal that was unlucky not to go in and led to the corner we scored from. Before that he played in Berry for his hit off the post and won a header as the ball came back from that to return possession to us which led to Godden's saved flick. Give footballers a bit of space to work in and they'll be much better
If we do go up I expect he'd handle the step up with ease.