We were completely done by the end of that season and it was very noticeable how teams were negating our switches by closing the spaces we used to exploit. In the last eight league games he got one assist, or if you want to stretch it out he got three assists and one goal in the last eighteen league games. Teams had sussed us and we had to change it up because we simply couldn't play the way we used to. That included Doherty's role, I'm pretty sure the manager must have felt that way too or he wouldn't have wanted to replace him. Maybe they should have just stuck to the seven goals and five assists stats and kept him instead of analysing the actual football being played?
I remember the football being played all too well, we were superb that season, but many of our players were understandably dead on their feet after a near 60 game season - so of course we started to look less effective as the season drew to a close.
Funnily enough, in the last 13 league games Doc scored or assisted 30% of our goals. So as I said this idea he was "completely inneffective" is clearly hyperbole at best, bollocks at worst.
And for all the criticisms of his defending he was superb against Sevilla, in what was his last game - that's a distinct memory, not stats, so don't be so patronising.
You're actually weakening your argument by saying our form was still decent even when he was supposedly ineffective, as we still picked up points as we were able to dominate other areas.
18/19 and 19/20 were our best 2 seasons for around 40 years, he was absolutely a key part of that, it was a great side!
Nuno wanted to change system the following season, which turned out to be a mistake, particularly as we lost so many goals in Doc, Jota and then Raul, I'm certain we'd have finished higher than 13th if we'd have continued with 352/343 but I understood the reasons why Nuno wanted to change the way we played.
