Duff's form

[richieos]

Ive heard that duff and owen are the only two newcastle players performing and that duff is playing extremely well. i havent seen the matches, is this true? if it is it can only be good for ireland, if he stays fit

[irishfan86]

Watched the Newcastle match on the weekend, and was impressed by Duff's play. He's been hit or miss recently due to his injuries, but that was a good performance from an individual perspective.

[tetsujin1979]

Newcastle have performed slightly better at home when Duff has started.
I added in a new page to the Irish Abroad site, that shows the overall results of a team, VS the results when a certain player starts. It's not quite complete, but you can have a look at it here: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroad/teamStats.xquery?teamID=1823&seasonID=138
Newcastle have performed better at home with Duff than without him, and slightly better away without him. Overall, they have better results with Duff than without him.

Some other interesting things (well, as interesting as these things get) include Sunderland's stats: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroad/teamStats.xquery?teamID=2493&seasonID=138
They are a far better team away from home when Andy Reid starts, but far worse at home with him in the starting XI
From Ipswich's stats: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroad/teamStats.xquery?teamID=1372&seasonID=138
their most influential players are Alan Quinn and Jonathan Walters

[eirebhoy]

Kinnear:

"I thought Damien Duff was superb and got in some fantastic crosses. I said at half-time: 'Your outlet's Damien Duff - you need to give him the ball early'.

"He's got the ability to run at people, and he can pick out a pass as well. We don't want to be passing it to him when there's people marking him, but when the full-backs are dropping off.

"We want him to beat people, and have people on the end of his crosses.

"We had a half-chance with Geremi, and the crowd was buzzing. It was almost like the shackles were off.

"Duff tortured them down the left-hand side, and with 15-20 minutes left we should have gambled a bit more and overloaded the penalty box."

[srfc1928]

Ive heard that duff and owen are the only two newcastle players performing and that duff is playing extremely well. i havent seen the matches, is this true? if it is it can only be good for ireland, if he stays fit
Quiet 1st half as were newcastle
Played really well 2nd half,
got about the pitch showing for the ball all the time.
Good run for his goal which he put away confidently.
Great to see Duffer returning to form.

[Lionel Ritchie]

good to see him shrug off a couple of very hard tackles as well.

[bmorgan87]

hes been gettin alot of stick recently about never takin a player on and rightly so when u think of the old(young) duffer! 3 players sorounding him and duff wud find a way threw but nowadays he just wants to get rid of the ball.. aint winnin the freekicks and pens like he usta and hardly knocks a good ball into the box.. thats the facts!
i love duff and hope he becomes the player who made it into the uefa team of the year 2002 but i have my doubts..
think hes just lacking alot of confidence, but if he can get that back we may get duffer back to his best..
if he had s.hunts commitment,runnin at players then wed have a top player, cuz thats exactly wat duff is missin..
(think iv finnaly proved my point)

[richieos]

hes been gettin alot of stick recently about never takin a player on and rightly so when u think of the old(young) duffer! 3 players sorounding him and duff wud find a way threw but nowadays he just wants to get rid of the ball.. aint winnin the freekicks and pens like he usta and hardly knocks a good ball into the box.. thats the facts!
i love duff and hope he becomes the player who made it into the uefa team of the year 2002 but i have my doubts..
think hes just lacking alot of confidence, but if he can get that back we may get duffer back to his best..
if he had s.hunts commitment,runnin at players then wed have a top player, cuz thats exactly wat duff is missin..
(think iv finnaly proved my point)

have you watched the newcastle matches? thats why i started this thread, because duff has started to take players on again and really torment defences instead of being neat and tidy. id back him to tear cyprus apart too and maybe win a penalty/important free kick

[Scram]

have you watched the newcastle matches? thats why i started this thread, because duff has started to take players on again and really torment defences instead of being neat and tidy. id back him to tear cyprus apart too and maybe win a penalty/important free kick

Good to see him smiling again. The guy works his @ss off and deserves to be enjoying his football.

We could all be hitting form at the right time?

[ken foree]

his well-taken goal apart i thought duff was average on sunday. he seems to be improving but he's way off his best form and needs to stay fit and improve. that said i think he was behind owen in the first half and moved wide with the start of the 2nd where he looked a bit better. it's a sign of a quality player when one can surmount injuries and re-invent themselves, or at least magnify other aspects of their game when their primary attributes start to wane (eg. duff's pace, particularly his acceleration from tight areas, seems well off his previous standard). this might be necessary for damien as it's hard to figure out how his speed will suddenly 'return'.

[OwlsFan]

The highlight of the game last night for me was to see Duff somewhere near the form of old. I thought it was gone forever but that was more like the old Duffer. Long may it continue.

[jmurphyc]

The highlight of the game last night for me was to see Duff somewhere near the form of old. I thought it was gone forever but that was more like the old Duffer. Long may it continue.

He's lost a fair bit of pace though. Other than that aspect though, he looked excellent last night. An on-form duff could be crucial to our chances.

[irishfan86]

He's not as physically fast, but his decision making and quick-feet haven't left him.

He's got a great first touch, and is a fantastic crosser of the ball.

Was delighted to see him shine last night, and I hope to see him evolve as a player in the coming months and years.

[NeilMcD]

His bit of magic won us the game. Fair play duffer. If he turns the way Ryan Giggs did when he lost his pace I would have no problem

[finnpark]

Newcastle have performed slightly better at home when Duff has started.
I added in a new page to the Irish Abroad site, that shows the overall results of a team, VS the results when a certain player starts. It's not quite complete, but you can have a look at it here: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroad/teamStats.xquery?teamID=1823&seasonID=138
Newcastle have performed better at home with Duff than without him, and slightly better away without him. Overall, they have better results with Duff than without him.

Some other interesting things (well, as interesting as these things get) include Sunderland's stats: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroad/teamStats.xquery?teamID=2493&seasonID=138
They are a far better team away from home when Andy Reid starts, but far worse at home with him in the starting XI
From Ipswich's stats: http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroad/teamStats.xquery?teamID=1372&seasonID=138
their most influential players are Alan Quinn and Jonathan Walters

Thats interesting stats.

[ken foree]

absolutely delighted for him. thank you duffer!

[eirebhoy]

I don't know if that "Newcastle Online" forum is in the minority but they just don't like Duff. All the reports I've read say Duff was probably Newcastle's best player today. He's getting a slating on that forum.

"how can you rate Duff a 6 you paddy loving w*****"

Another comment was that Duff has "no heart". I've read quite a few times on that forum that he doesn't try enough. Now you don't need to be a football expert to notice that Duff gives his absolute all when playing and it has been no different with Newcastle.

I'm hoping someone can tell me that that forum is just full of gob****es who don't represent the opinion of the average Newcastle fan.

[Paddy Garcia]

[QUOTE=Ciaran;1059545]From some of their comments I'd say its the type of forum that criticise players by default. Its funny to see forums like that, I remember last season a Reading forum did nothing but slate Kevin Doyle calling him worthless, had no future and a variety of other insults.
/[QUOTE]

Yeah, those are a pain - glad were not like that.

O'Shea, McGeady, O'Brien, etc - please ignore.

[irishfan86]

I think Duff is playing well, and at times has been Newcastle's best player; however, as Ciaran rightly says, they're in a relegation battle and have been brutal at times.

The problem with evaluating Duff, and I'm as guilty as it as anyone, is that when you look at him, you're comparing him to the player of a few years ago.

Even when he has a good game, it leaves me feeling unsatisfied, as if he could have played a lot better.

It will probably be something he carries for the rest of his career unfortunately, because of his previous successes.

[lionelhutz]

Anybody see Brambles equaliser on Saturday??

Duff should have easily cleared it off the line. He cost them 2 points by not doing his job on the post

[Oink]

Anybody see Brambles equaliser on Saturday??

Duff should have easily cleared it off the line. He cost them 2 points by not doing his job on the post

Yep he should have done better, also cost me money, had a sneaky in running bet on newcastle @ 5/1 when they went 1-0 down.

He played pretty well otherwise though.

[jbyrne]

Anybody see Brambles equaliser on Saturday??

Duff should have easily cleared it off the line. He cost them 2 points by not doing his job on the post

i think thats very harsh. he's not a big lad and those kind of goal line clearances are always awkward at best. was heavily involved in at least one of the newcastle goals