Celtic star Shane Duffy struggles in Republic of Ireland defeat, get’s 4/10 rating

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Celtic defender Shane Duffy endured a night of struggle as the Republic of Ireland lost 3-0 by England at Wembley in a friendly.

Duffy operated in his usual centre-back role but was unable to prevent England running riot in the capital.

The player on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion has endured a mixed bag of a start to life at Celtic.

Duffy, 28. has played 13 games for the Hoops but of late has looked out of sorts in Neil Lennon’s team.

His struggles showed no sign of ending last night and afterwards Balls.ie suggested as much.

In their player ratings piece, they wrote: “Didn’t cover himself in glory for England’s opening goal, failing to deal with the aerial presence of Harry Maguire.

“He made up for that somewhat with a potentially goal-saving intervention via a block on Calvert-Lewin, but he continued to struggle.

“While Ireland supporters will have hoped that Duffy would perform at his usual level, he looked like a player well short of confidence after a difficult spell at club level.”

TBR View – Lennon needs to help Duffy out of his rut

Celtic are nine points adrift of Rangers in their pursuit for a tenth league title in succession.

With that in mind, they can ill-afford any more slip-ups and Lennon desperately needs his defence to be on top form.

That includes Duffy and his form is providing the boss with a real conundrum.

The experienced performer is stuck in a rut and with a plethora of talent, there are some big decisions to make.

Duffy will need to call upon all of his experience to get out of his current predicament.

The sooner he does that the better it will be for Celtic and for Lennon.