61 passes, nine clearances: Celtic loanee Shane Duffy produces encouraging display

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As things stand, it is difficult to see many Celtic fans imploring the club to try and keep Shane Duffy beyond his loan spell at Parkhead.

Duffy has been a hugely underwhelming signing. Even on loan, he has been an expensive addition – Sky Sports suggests that Celtic are paying him around £25,000-a-week. And he has come in for a lot of criticism.

Nevertheless, Neil Lennon has, until recently, kept faith with the Republic of Ireland international. And after a handful of games out of the starting lineup, Duffy returned to the fold at St Johnstone on Sunday.

It was not a flawless afternoon for Celtic and Duffy by any means. Odsonne Edouard was needed to score twice to help the Hoops turn the game around for a 2-1 win.

But, as Duffy’s statistics show, there were some much more promising signs. As shown by Whoscored.com, no player on the pitch completed a greater number of successful passes than Duffy, who managed 61. He managed one key pass.

He also made nine clearances during the game. Kristoffer Ajer was the second most prolific, with six clearances.

Duffy won four aerial duels out of five. This time, Ajer was the only Celtic player to win more.

A look on social media would suggest that some Celtic fans were much happier with Duffy’s performance than they have been in a fairly long time.

Of course, he still has a long way to go before he silences all of his critics and doubters. But there is surely no question that there were certainly some encouraging signs on Sunday.