Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has expressed his belief in Celtic defender Shane Duffy, as he plans to have a one-to-one chat with him about where he’s at.
Duffy has suffered a dreadful initiation at Celtic over the last couple of months. A string of poor individual errors against Rangers, AC Milan, Aberdeen, Lille, and Sparta Prague led to him being dropped for yesterday’s convincing win at Motherwell.
When he arrived on his season-long loan move from Brighton, many Celtic fans expected to be getting a no-nonsense defender who was going to dominate the vast majority of centre-forwards he came up against in Scotland. That hasn’t been the case, with Duffy proving to be slow, positionally all over the place, and sloppy in possession.
Even so, there remains a massive level of confidence in him by Ireland boss Kenny. Duffy has captained Ireland on a host of occasions in the past, which has led to an increased level of trust in him from his manager. And Kenny has again reiterated that trust as he backed the Celtic man amid his Parkhead struggles.
As quoted by RTE, Kenny said: “I have a list that my fitness coach and analyst compiled in relation to the amount of minutes and games our players have played. Shane Duffy has played, from starting the first game for me in Bulgaria (in September), 18 games in that period (prior to the Motherwell match).
“He didn’t play (from the start) today, he came on at the end (in the 78th minute). That’s fine. Maybe he needed a rest. We’ll have a look – I’ll see how he comes in, I’ll chat to him and see how he is.
“But if you’re asking me, have I got faith in Shane, I definitely do. I believe in him. I think his performances for Ireland overall, (under) three different managers, have been to a very high standard and I think we should appreciate him.”
Duffy’s form nothing to do with game-time
Regardless of what any manager says, it’s pretty clear that Duffy being dropped at Fir Park yesterday was all to do with his form – not the amount of games he’s played.
Remember, when the centre-back first arrived from Brighton, much was made about the fact he needed minutes under his belt. He’s got plenty of them now, with Lennon consistently giving him 90 minutes over the last two months. It’s no point turning around now and saying that he needs a rest to rediscover his form.
But for me, Duffy isn’t the carthorse he’s made out to be at times. There is clearly a lot more to his game than what he’s been showing for Celtic since his arrival. Whether the stress of the hellish 2020 he’s had is having an effect, or whether the pressure of trying to win 10-in-a-row with his boyhood club is getting to him – there has to be more to him than what we’ve seen so far.
We’re talking about a player with vast international and Premier League experience. He’s regularly come up against the best centre-forwards in world football and has managed to make a name for himself against them.
How, then, can such an experienced veteran come to Celtic and struggle against the likes of Sam Cosgrove and Kevin Nisbet, with all due respect? It just shouldn’t be happening, and is probably more to do with the mental side of the game than anything.
As Celtic supporters, all we can do is hope that Kenny places his faith in Duffy for their upcoming Nations League games against Wales and Bulgaria respectively. He’s yet to have a positive week for Ireland since he signed for Celtic. Perhaps some good results there and things can start taking a turn for him – at this point, that’s all we can really hope for.
In other news, one of Celtic’s big-hitters isn’t happy with the media as he called out those who question his commitment.
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