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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, Photo: Sportsfile
Following the Republic of Ireland's 2-0 defeat to Greece in the Aviva on Tuesday evening former Irish international and RTÉ analyst, Stephen Kelly did not hold back with his review of Irish full back Matt Doherty.
He started by stating, "I'm not one for calling out a player and saying they're bad." Before describing the defending for the second Greek goal as "awful, it really is awful."
"Matt Doherty is tracking his runner and he just stops, what is worse about it is the jog back." going on to say the former Spurs man could have stopped the goal. "If Matt Doherty just runs back, sprints back in, he probably is recovering in that position, you cannot legislate for that."
He goes on to say it can't be due to tiredness as the Premiere League man was only brought on off the bench, "just sprint, there's no excuse because you're fresh onto the pitch, Matt has not played the whole game. "He is in a position where he should be able to sprint back and see that danger and get back in and cover."
"Sprinting is the basics of football, I don't know what you do with that."
After a very poor start to his Republic of Ireland career, Heimir Hallgrímsson will have to wait till October where Ireland with face Finland and Greece during the International break.
The full clip can be found below this article, courtesy of RTÉ Sport.
I think Stephen Kelly is fully correct to call out Matt Doherty for not sprinting. Glenn Whelan said the same on Virgin. Not good enough.
— Daniel Hussey (@DanielHussey2) September 10, 2024
pic.twitter.com/2ZuuMprLgr
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