Kevin Doyle dropped into the Football Show on Off The Ball where he spoke about how he evolved as a striker.

The former Ireland striker was 'all about the goals' early in his career but admitted as he matured he was happier to just play although it was always easier when he scored.

"He was the only manager I played under who was a forward in his playing days, and I really felt that on the pitch..."

Kevin Doyle recalls the impact Steve Coppell had on his careerhttps://t.co/vVN1n4ouAL

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"The style of play changed with the style of football," said Doyle of the evolution of his game over his career.

"When I was playing with Wolves it was one upfront. It went from everybody playing four-four-two in my teens and early twenties."

The change in the way teams Doyle was in played was often a factor of their League position, ultimately it benefitted the Wexford man.

"Later in my career, everyone is playing four-five-one or four-three-three especially four-five-one if you are in the bottom half of the table," said the former Wolves front man.

"My style of football had to change if I was going to play. When I was younger I had more pace and everything would have been looking to get in behind.

"Whereas when I got older, I lost some pace, I had a bad hamstring injury in my mid-twenties and I lost a yard of pace from that.

"So I had to adapt anyway, my hold-up play became good, my strength, bringing people into play. That maybe extended my career and got me playing until I was 34."

Scoring goals

Kevin Doyle illustrated the evolution of his own attitude over his career but was almost envious of players like Robbie Keane who just thrived on scoring.

"As much as I would love to play in a four-four-two and get lots of goals,' recalled Doyle of his early days as a striker.

"All I thought about was scoring goals and I would be happy if I scored even if the team lost.

"Later in my career, that was not the case. I do think goalscorers have to be greedy, selfish... the proper ones just have to be so single-minded, just have one thought in their head, the real goalscorers, like Robbie [Keane].

"Robbie Keane didn't care if he had 20 chances, not that he would and missed them. He had great confidence, he would still be as buoyant and available to score the twenty-first one.

"You don't see that, players usually drop off [when they miss chances] hide or lose confidence in the game.

"Whereas people like Robbie Keane, who score all the time, don't. I wasn't, in the end, I just enjoyed playing.

"I didn't care whether I scored or not, I didn't mind if I played midfield or left-wing. I just enjoyed the game being out on the pitch and playing.

"I loved scoring, don't get me wrong, it is always nice to get goals but as I got older I just enjoyed the games more even if I wasn't playing maybe quite as well or scoring as often as I did in my younger days," Kevin Doyle said.