Celtic great Frank McAvennie has slammed the mentality towards Scottish football from England as he discussed Shane Duffy’s start to life in Glasgow.
Duffy has struggled to deal with the pace of the game in Scotland, struggling badly in games against Rangers, Aberdeen, and in Europe against Milan and Sparta Prague too. Everything from his positioning to his decision-making has been surprisingly off, and it’s not something that looks like picking up anytime soon.
It follows a line of players from down south who were tipped to dominate up in Scotland but have struggled with the intensity levels. There was the comical Joey Barton nonsense, whilst Jermain Defoe is another to have underachieved massively. He was going to score about a million goals a season remember (The Herald).
Duffy doesn’t quite fall into the category of flop of course. He’s still some way from that. However, McAvennie believes that the big man has indeed judged Scottish football wrongly like so many others in the past.
As quoted by Football Insider, McAvennie said: “If Jullien is not back (for Saturday’s trip to Hibs), Neil Lennon will keep Nir Bitton in there. The boy Duffy has come up and his struggles have been well documented.
“I know he is a Celtic supporter but a lot of people think it is easy up here. He played a couple of games and scored a couple of goals and he must have thought it was easy but Scottish football is hard. It is not the diddy league that people think it is. You get no time on the ball. People are down your neck.
“He has got to adjust. He will be sitting on the bench and taking it all in because he is a great player and a good pro. It has not happened so far and I do not think he will be brought back in yet. When he comes back in I think he will come good.“
Duffy’s love of the club will have kept him focused
Personally, I think it’s too easy an excuse to just point the finger at Duffy and assume he thought Scottish football would be easy.
Yes, he did score in his first two games against Ross County and St Mirren respectively. But it’s not as if he scored those and started thinking life was going to be simple here – he made some errors and lapses against County in particular. So it’s not as if he was good for a game or two then thought he could drop his levels.
This isn’t Duffy underestimating Scotland. We all know how much he loves the club, and that love of the club will have brimmed a desire to do well for us inside of him. I can’t see how he comes strutting out thinking everything is going to be easy when he has that kind of pressure on himself. He doesn’t look like that kind of figure.
If you’re asking me, I think Duffy has made a few errors to begin with that have been criticised and he’s caved a tad under the pressure. His performances against Aberdeen and Sparta in particular saw some real comical decisions that you just wouldn’t have seen from him at Brighton. His mind isn’t right now when defences are running at him.
The pressure on him has really grown arms and legs, and it’s clear that he isn’t dealing with it too well. That doesn’t come from an underestimation of Scottish football, I believe it’s simply failing to respond positively to the pressure.
McAvennie is spot on about England’s general mentality towards Scottish football. That’s an age-old problem we’ve always had to deal with, going back before most of our squad was even born! That won’t change anytime soon, but Duffy can’t be accused of underestimating the game here along with them He’s being accused of enough as it is.
In other news, the Celtic squad’s Football Manager valuations have been revealed, and there may be a surprise for many in there.
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