Duffer

[Green Army Girl]

So who or what, were you mocking, jeering or jesting.

I was jessing about Duff is everything ok now i hope i have explained myself well enough for you hope we can get on the subject now, i enjoy these chats

[paul_oshea]

you two wont fool the children of the revolution.

[eirebhoy]

It's also worth pointing out that Duff didn't have a good game against Anderlecht on Tuesday (from what I gather)

Duff was one of the better players against Anderlecht. I was pleasantly suprised he was taken on players and succeeding while Robben was continuing his poor start to the season by giving away possession half the time he had the ball. Duff won the freekick which led to the goal by dribbling past a couple of players. I enjoyed watching him in a Chelsea shirt for the first time in a long time. Don't ask me what the media was watching.

Not the greatest game. But Essien and Duff were solid.
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Not a great performance but we got the win and thats all that matters I was pleased with Essien Duff and Gallas at lb
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Ally McCoist just made Lampard his MOM with 8 out of 10 while Duff got a 5. You have to wonder if he was actually watching the game.
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Duff was excellent again and SWP should have been brought on alot earlier.
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Duff was no doubt my MOTM with a sterling performance and we can see how he does very well concentrating on the attacking role.
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Essien, & Duff were our best players.
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Duff was probably the best player in the first half yet gets a 6 by Sky Sports. He must have set high standards or the rater is a bit biased.
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Haha voodoo! Duff was rated 6 by the same SkySports and do you believe? His mesmerising runs in the first half led to the freekick that Lamps scored.
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Duffer did well but Robben, in my opinion, had a stinker, with most of his passes being either under or overhit.

http://www.cfcnet.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10982

I have always been banging on about Mourinho not giving Duff more freedom but I was happy to see that he has not forgotten he can play.

He had a blinder against Italy, mainly because Lippi didn't tell anyone to mark him. People have copped on now. France had 3 players on him whenever he had the ball. I'd love to see the old Duffer ripping up the wings but at the end of the day, the old Duffer might not have got us 5 assists this WC campaign, this Duffer has.

[tetsujin1979]

OK, good to hear he played well. I didn't see the game, and was just going on the comments being made when I turned on the telly (ITV) at the end of the game. They said the wide men underperformed and showed Duff getting the ball in space and instead of running with it, he stopped and tried to pass, and lost the ball. They were saying he should have run with the ball as he had space in front of him.

That does sound like Mourinho's tactics, keeping possession and working the ball forward, rather than breaking forward and taking a chance. It may be negative, but they are top of the table with a 100% record

[brine3]

Duff is obviously Ireland's greatest attacking threat so international teams tend to close down on him. Saying "he didn't get a look in against Sagnol" is unfair, because not only Sagnol, but half the French defence was marking him. Teams playing Chelsea have other multi-million pound attacking threats to worry about so Duff gets slightly more freedom.

If Duff is being marked by three French players then you can understand why he isn't producing moment after moment of magic. This doesn't have to be a bad thing though, because if he is keeping players occupied it means that it opens up more possibilities for attack for other players. This is why we need an attacking ball player (i.e. not Kilbane) in the centre of the park, so we can profit from Duff being marked out of the match.

[Colie]

Critisism smritisism. He mighn't be as good as he was from the perspective of taking players on but he's still our best player. He's had to change his game because he's being marked out of it. I LOVE Duffers. He is a Hero.

[livehead1]

i agree he is class but i miss that adrenalin rush that i used to get every time he got the ball knowing that he was gonna do something magical with it. his final season with blackburn will live long in my memory as i dont think he will ever be that type of player again...also, he needs to score more goals for us

[thejollyrodger]

Personally I dont think Duff is the main problem, I think its the whole English mentality towards football. The whole anglo saxon approach to football is to remove individual skill and fit into the 4-4-2 system.

When barca played chelsea it showed the 4-4-2 system up , one was all about physical attributes and straight lines and the other was all about skill and football.

[Slash/ED]

But Chelsea don't play 4-4-2 and iirc didn't play it against Barca either

I too miss the buzz of watching the Duff of old.

[Stuttgart88]

No, but jr's main point still holds. It seems that just about everywhere the game is becoming increasingly skillful. What I've seen of the Premiership so far this season has been all about discipline, strength & physicality, rare moments of skill excepted. Once the WC comes around this style of football won't fare well IMHO.

On Duffer: his performances against Denmark in early 2002 (?) & against Sapin in Suwon will live with me forever. I think he's an all round better player now, but seems to have had the adventurous spirit coached out of him & in favour of discipline & ball-retention at all costs.

[Qwerty]

Not sure I agree, Greece are Euro champions thanks to discipline, strength & physicality. Germany got to the WC final because of these traits. Brazil also have these traits since '94 when they saw the error of their ways - they also of course have the sublime gifts of Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldinho etc. These are the traita any good team is built upon. Braxil have used a system every bit as much as Germany.