Tony Docherty's failure to fix hapless defence comes home to roost as ruthless Dundee demand better

Tony Docherty was in bullish mood moments after Dundee had preserved their Premiership status with a last-day victory over a condemned St Johnstone side. ‘We were never losing this game,’ he stated.

Looking ahead to next season, he promised to take stock of a disappointing campaign that had seen his Dark Blues side concede an eye-watering 77 goals across 38 games — an average of two every 90 minutes.

By 9am yesterday, Dundee relayed the news that Docherty and his backroom team had been removed from their duties.

‘Sunday’s result confirmed the club’s place in the Scottish Premiership for next season,’ read their statement. ‘However, this season the results of the team have not met the standards expected by the club.

‘With the club finishing the season in 10th position, one place above the relegation play-off position, the club have taken the decision to relieve Tony of his duties.

‘The club intends at this juncture to restructure the football department and the process to appoint a new management team begins immediately.’

Tony Docherty was sacked the day after his Dundee team preserved their Premiership status

Docherty had been bullish after a final-day victory against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park

The Dark Blues won their battle but Docherty had lost the war. For owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms, the very fact that they were involved in the relegation equation was evidently too much to stomach.

They may have been a car crash defensively but Dundee’s freewheeling attacking style — they were the fourth highest scorers in the league with 57 goals — endeared them to many football observers.

In time-honoured fashion, Docherty’s sacking will be met with incredulity by the usual suspects on Sportsound and beyond.

Dig a bit deeper, though, and his removal is less surprising.

The ruthless Dundee board dispensed with Docherty’s predecessor Gary Bowyer in similar fashion hours after he had won the Championship and been named manager of the year in 2022-23. It appears Nelms and Co can be decisive, brutally so... unless it comes to casting votes to curtail the league season during a pandemic.

What is clear from the club’s statement is they expect much more than Docherty delivered in his second season at Dens.

So can the 54-year-old count himself unlucky his bosses didn’t have faith in him moving forward?

His first season at Dens was a huge success, sealing a top-six place in their first season back in the Premiership whilst blooding young talent like Lyall Cameron and Josh Mulligan and Liverpool loan star Owen Beck.

Even amid that success, defending was an issue, with more goals conceded (68) than every other team in the league apart from bottom side Livingston.

Docherty’s failure to fix that issue has come home to roost.

The manager sought to address his team’s failures in the summer, adding experienced centre-half Clark Robertson as well as young defenders Billy Koumetio, Ethan Ingram, Imari Samuels and Ziyad Larkeche (loan). Aaron Donnelly arrived on a permanent deal in January after a successful loan spell last season.

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Even with a much-changed defensive line-up, though, clean sheets have been hard to come by, leaving the manager and his coaching team as the unmistakable common denominator.

To blame the defence alone would be a mistake. Many of the goals conceded come from Dundee midfielders daydreaming as opposition players drift into dangerous areas. They also have a bad habit of losing the ball, sometimes in their own box, while trying to construct the perfect counter attack.

The club’s policy of buying young players from English academies was bold and ambitious but has misfired completely and left Docherty with a squad big on numbers but short on men he can trust.

An upbringing in the plush surroundings of Brighton, Nottingham Forest or Liverpool counts for little when the physical demands of Scottish football smack you in the face at the SMISA Stadium or Fir Park.

Koumetio and Ingram, both youngsters with limited first-team experience, seemed to take turns in making match-defining mistakes earlier in the season while left-back Samuels has rarely been seen since making his first start in the 6-0 home loss to Hearts in February.

Despite stock-piling centre halves to accommodate a 3-5-2 formation, club captain Joe Shaughnessy sometimes seems to be the only player on the books who recognises the value of putting his boot through the ball and clearing his lines.

You can’t help think Dundee would have been served better with the addition of a couple of hard-bitten professionals instead of a catalogue of project players.

Bringing players halfway around the world from Mexico has also proved a misguided venture. Of the three Mexicans on the books, only defender Antonio Portales has proved fit for purpose.

Joe Shaughnessy has been one of the few reliable performers in a poor Dundee defence

If Docherty is the prime mover in Dundee’s transfer dealings, all of this falls on him. If not, he has been dealt a poor hand.

A lack of pragmatism has also proved costly. They conceded a late winner to ten-man Motherwell while going hell for leather for three points when a draw would have inched them away from relegation danger.

Look at the success stories of the Premiership this season: Jim Goodwin’s Dundee United and Stephen Robinson’s St Mirren. Two solid, hardworking teams who are hard to break down and know how to win ugly. In so many ways the exact opposite of Docherty’s Dundee. Now look at the league table. United up in fourth in their first season after promotion and St Mirren in the top six again.

This season could actually have turned out worse for the Dark Blues but for Ross County’s disintegration. Don Cowie’s side, once candidates for the top six, took two points from the last 27 available and now look vulnerable in the play-off to streetwise Livingston.

Docherty’s side have had their moments. They enjoyed handsome home wins over Hibs, Motherwell and savoured an emphatic 4-2 triumph against rivals United at Tannadice.

Just as regular, though, have been the chastening defeats. Hammerings against the Old Firm are dime a dozen for teams like Dundee but they have also lost heavily to Hearts (6-0), Hibs (4-0), Aberdeen (4-1) and Ross County (3-0).

Docherty’s habit of blaming VAR and referees has also worn thin. That said, his team were on the wrong end of arguably the worst refereeing decision of the season last Wednesday when referee Nick Walsh awarded Ross County a stoppage-time penalty for handball in the 1-1 draw that prolonged Dundee’s agony until the final day.

Docherty can at least now relax knowing the job of fixing their hapless defence and building a more robust squad for next season will fall to someone else. The Dundee board have ambitions beyond scrapping for survival in the dog days of the season. Now they have to back their next manager with resources to match their expectations.