It wasn’t supposed to start off like this, but Shane Duffy has some serious questions to answer as we look back on his first seven weeks as a Celtic player.
When he signed on loan from Brighton until the end of the season, the Celtic support were delighted. Myself included. After all, we had just bagged ourselves an experienced centre-back who had played over 30 times at international level and nearly 100 games in the Premier League (Transfermarkt).
The idea was he would shore up a backline that was getting battered about by any centre-forward with a modicum of power. That he would help Christopher Jullien stop being bullied by the likes of Nicke Kabamba, Marios Ogboe, and Sam Cosgrove respectively.
But it’s time to get serious – that’s not what we’ve got. Or at least that’s not the level of competency we’ve seen from the Irishman in his first nine games with the Hoops.
The early displays were fine. He shot himself onto the back pages with goals against Ross County and St Mirren respectively. It was exactly the kind of positive press we wanted Duffy to bag. But that’s as good as things have gotten.
The warning signs were there against Hibs. Duffy was getting a hard time off of Kevin Nisbet, who was using his pace to get some joy in behind the Celtic new Bhoy. He couldn’t find his goal touch on the day, but it was an eyebrow-raiser seeing how easily Duffy was at times done by the Hibs man.
It became evident from there on that Celtic perhaps weren’t playing to Duffy’s strengths. The high line hasn’t helped the centre-back given his lack of pace, and he’s too easily being exploited for his slow reactions to those looking to run off him.
Over the last few days, he’s come up against some better quality teams in Rangers and AC Milan respectively. Celtic may have lost both matches, but Duffy’s performances in both have been extremely concerning.
Too many errors of too many varieties
Against Rangers, he was at fault for both goals. Firstly, he clumsily broke the defensive line to allow Connor Goldson to glance home a header whilst remaining onside. For the second, he lost a strength battle to his former Brighton team-mate, giving us next to no chance of hauling ourselves back into the game.
Next up was Milan last night, and things didn’t go much better for him there either. He misjudged the flight of the ball for the opener, before being far too slow to react to Milan’s attacks for goals number two and three.
Duffy has generally impressed in a deeper defensive line at Brighton, but this isn’t all just down to that. It’s the slow reaction times Duffy is putting in when defending in and around his box. His strength simply isn’t proving to be enough, and it’s starting to show in games against a better quality of opposition.
There wasn’t a lot of chat when the Ireland captain signed about whether he actually fits Celtic’s style of play. His lack of accuracy on the ball combined with his rashness and slowness with reactions are all proving to be big problems. They also suggest that he simply isn’t the kind of centre-back needed to suit the way Celtic go about their business.
And worst of all, the big defender doesn’t look like he’s enjoying himself either. It’s clear when you watch him during games that there’s an agonising expression on his face. He knows he isn’t producing, and it’s something that’s really hurting him.
It’s too early to say that this relationship just isn’t to be. Duffy will get time to prove himself at Parkhead just as all of Lennon’s summer signings will.
But the early reports aren’t good, and starting on Sunday at Pittodrie, he needs to turn over a new leaf and help get Celtic going again.
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