Last month a tweak to Nuno Espirito Santo’s system saw an extra man added to the midfield and a front two combine, and the results have told the story. Wolves are unbeaten in seven matches, across two competitions going into Saturday’s Premier League clash with AFC Bournemouth and Doherty feels the tweak of system has had the desired effect.
On the change of shape
“The shape has changed a little bit, we play with an extra midfielder and two forwards now, where we used to be 3-4-3. We can always go back to that, we know how to play it, but when teams try to figure us about, we know we can play two different shapes.
“At the moment it’s working well, so I don’t think we’ll be changing any time soon. We changed it up and started to get results again, so the fact we can play different ways in the same sort of shape is difficult for teams.
“We do a lot on shape and work on the weaknesses of other teams. We watch a bit of video on the day of the game and do a lot of work on the training ground – a lot of tactical things, making sure we’re in the right sort of shape.”
On changes to his role
“I have to keep on running, that doesn’t change. The only thing different is normally there might be a winger I’d play with, but now it’s maybe a midfielder or a striker. I still have to get on the back post offensively and get back defensively.”
On consistency during last Bournemouth win
“The success (in December) was probably down to just being consistent in terms of our performance. There are times you can be good one week and the next week we might slip up. We were solid for the whole month and got the results.
“It’s extremely difficult to get results in this league. Picking up that amount of points in a month is obviously a massive bonus. We’d had a run where we’d lost five in a row, that can easily happen, but we went back to basics.”
On maintaining momentum
“I don’t think it’s going to be one of those, from now on, where we win five, then do what we did halfway through the season and lose five. I think we’ll be steady, getting results, and I think we can definitely finish seventh.
“We want to finish as high as possible, getting as many points as possibly, and we’re still in the cup so we’ll go for that as well. I guess that this season will be the benchmark for next season, to keep improving and finish higher again.”
