Shooting Star
Well-known member
Agreed.
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[Albion] Duffy our Best Player
- Thread starter marlowe
- Start date
Agreed.
Even when they are all pretty much standing in a line?
Bold Seagull
strong and stable with me, or...
The real strength of our team is that no one actually stands out completely from the rest. There is absolutely no doubt that when Gross is effective, it's because he is not required to drop in defensively to midfield, and that happens because our back line, and our CBs in particular get complete control of the opposition's threat.
I agree with the article, that Duffy may well be our most underrated player, especially in our own fan base. He's deceptively quick for a big man, barely loses a contest in the air, is more comfortable on the ball than he is given credit for. His pass accuracy is 77%, that is just 2% lower than Dunk.
An immense player who should be getting a lot more credit than he seems to on here.
I agree with the article, that Duffy may well be our most underrated player, especially in our own fan base. He's deceptively quick for a big man, barely loses a contest in the air, is more comfortable on the ball than he is given credit for. His pass accuracy is 77%, that is just 2% lower than Dunk.
An immense player who should be getting a lot more credit than he seems to on here.
Dirk Lehmann's Python
New member
Our most underrated player, because he's Irish, thick and not Lewis Dunk.
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Marshy
Well-known member
Incredibly under rated is Mr Duffy, he has had a fine season. And is still getting better.
Centre halfs are pairings, both would not be as good without the other.
Centre halfs are pairings, both would not be as good without the other.
Agreed.
Statements like 'he's good at winning headers, blocking shots, and winning tackles, but not very good at playing football' are ridiculous.
Whilst many fans will inevitably value prettier aspects of the game more highly, 'winning headers, blocking shots and winning tackles' ARE 'football' too.
Exactamondo.
Although I'd say they are more of a triumvirate, with Ryan.
There's a seemingly effortless (although clearly not) understanding between the 3 as to who needs to go where and when.
Sure occasionally there's crossed wires and mistakes but for me they are defined by how the 3 of them are instantly ready to go again and the two always have the back of the third.
From the outside looking in, it feels like they are almost a separate team within the team.
Dirk Lehmann's Python
New member
Indeed. Even now there are people who for baffling reasons want Goldson to play, as if our defensive record doesn't speak for itself with Dunk and Duffy.
Before Duffy it was exactly the same with Gordon Greer (although admittedly he wasn't as good as big Shane). People would be itching to pick up on his mistakes, but turn a blind eye to those of his sidekick. Nobody mentions for example that 3 out of 4 of those big diagonals to Knockaert that Dunk hits go straight into touch...they focus one the 1 out of 4 that comes off. They wouldn't do that with anyone else.
Very strange, thankfully most people can see we have two top quality centre backs and hopefully Dunk will be in the England side too.
...as an aside, these are the same oddballs who think Locadia should be first choice striker and Hemed number 2 with no real justification. Absolutely baffling.
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But is it though? Why do you find it baffling that some of us "oddballs" think that the club would not track and scout a player, and then pay ~£14m for him if he wasn't good enough to be our first choice striker? Are you suggesting that the club has spent that kind of money on a player not good enough to start for us? Surely not
Duffy will always be shithouse until Honda name a car after him:-
I'm quite happy to put my hand up and suggest that.
They haven't made many mistakes, but our recruitment team are not infallible. It isn't an exact science, after all.
I'm not sure ridiculous is fair, opinions vary and as most of it is subjective pretty well any reasonable statement has merit. The 77% stat does hide a whole lot of stuff, in Duffy's case that the vast majority of his passes are (aimed) to Dunk or Bruno so you would expect a high number.
I'm not arguing he shouldn't be one of our first choice CB's but if I were to try and rank each position (or players hopefully) that we could improve he would come about #3 or 4 in my book
Every position/player is up for improvement, but it's unlikely that improvement will come from within the current squad.
When a defender leads the entire league in number of clearances, number of headed clearances and number of blocked shots, and people's subjective opinion is that he isn't a good footballer, then my subjective opinion, is that their opinion IS ridiculous.
Fair enough ... I missed the bits where anyone said he wasn't a good footballer
Brok
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- Dec 26, 2011
- 4,373
Dirk Lehmann's Python
New member
14m in the Premier League is about par with 300k on Liam Dickinson in League 1...
I am not writing Locadia off but it is genuinely odd that people think pricetag outweighs the current form and system - or maybe they just don't like Murray in the same way some people knock Duffy...hence my post in this thread.
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It did occur to me, the other day, that my protestations around 'he cost 15m, so come on!' really is chicken feed for a contracted striker, to a Premier League club.
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Yes of course, but it is foolish to say you are comfortable with him bringing the ball out of defence (unless of course you are, in which case I apologise).
As per my first post that important to the team, but I prefer him reacting rather than thinking.....
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