Tannadice club captain Docherty spent last season travelling to training and matches from his family home in the west of Scotland.
This summer, he has made a switch to the east.
It’s a decision that has gone down well with his manager, who also revealed this weekend could mark Docherty’s return to the United squad following injury.
Goodwin said: “I think with Ross, moving up here is a positive thing.
“Obviously we’ve got a number of players that are travelling from different areas.
“We always encourage players, if they are coming to Dundee United, to live in a close vicinity but we don’t put rules on it.
“We’re understanding of the fact that every player that we sign has got different circumstances.
“It’s not always easy to sell the house you’re living in in one part of the country and buy another one somewhere else.
“There are a lot of logistical issues within it.
“But we’d always encourage the guys to try and be closer to the training ground. That way they get a bit longer in their bed to recover.
“They’ve got less sitting in the car driving.
“From a professionalism point of view, athletically, I think it’s certainly beneficial.
“Ross has made that step now. He wants to give himself every chance of being fit and available for United in the Premier League.
“It’s a division he wants to test himself in. In order to do that, he has to be at his best.
On Docherty’s fitness, Goodwin added: “We’re being very patient with Ross, we don’t want to rush him back too early. I think we’ve done that now.
“We’ve given him plenty of time with the medical team and really tried to strengthen up the weaknesses he’s got.
“I think we’re close to seeing Ross back and being a part of things.
“Hopefully this weekend won’t come too soon and we’ll be able to have him in and around the squad.
“It’s unlikely he’ll start the game, given his lack of match fitness, but it would be great to have him in the squad and in the dressing room.
Goodwin also addressed his decision to leave Ross Graham out of his starting XI for last weekend’s draw with Ross County – and hinted that the defender’s absence may not stretch into a second week.
He explained: “It was a really tough decision to leave Ross out.
“This season, Ross was unlucky when the injury happened with Ryan Strain.
“We had to move Sevelj from that right centre-back role into the right wing-back role.
“Ross had to slide across because we didn’t really have anyone else experienced.
“Last weekend it was a decision between Kevin Holt and Ross Graham.
“We decided that Holt would stay in the team. That could change again for the weekend because there’s no guarantee for anybody.
“We’ve got to make sure we pick the strongest XI for each game.
“There might be times where we change the XI, depending on the opposition we face.”
