A recent comment by Derek McInnes should have Shane Duffy fired up for Celtic’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen on Sunday.
Duffy will be in action for the Hoops against Lille in the Europa League on Thursday, but he might well have noticed comments made by the Aberdeen boss, who wasn’t pleased with a challenge made by Duffy in the recent meeting between the teams on Ryan Edmondson.
“He took a sore one”
“When I look back at the challenge, I wasn’t too happy with it. He got helped on his way and took a sore one into the boards. He took a sore one, right enough” McInnes said, as quoted by the Press and Journal.
Duffy might not have had the best of games at Pittodrie, but there was nothing wrong with his challenge. It was firm but fair, and exactly the type of challenge he was brought to Celtic to do.
The two players went for the ball, giving it their all. As a result Edmondson ended up injured when his head hit the advertising boards. Duffy can’t be blamed for that.
McInnes’ comment seems a bit needless. Duffy didn’t do anything wrong in the incident, he was just trying to win the ball. Perhaps it is an attempt to put pressure on Duffy ahead of the semi-final. It might even be an attempt to put pressure on the referee for the game, to get ‘tough’ on Duffy.
Big performance is needed by player
However, Duffy should use the comments to get motivated for what is a huge game for Celtic. He needs to put on a big performance in the game, after some less than convincing displays recently for the Hoops.
There is plenty of time for Duffy to have a successful career with Celtic, and helping the team to a fourth successive Scottish Cup Final would certainly be a good start to that.
Maybe he needs just a little bit more motivation to really get up and running. If that is the case, then McInnes might well have provided that.
In other news, Hatem Elhamed may feature in the Scottish Cup semi-final.
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