Frank McAvennie claims Celtic could have their own Joey Barton situation on their hands with Shane Duffy.

The defender has been in poor form recently with the Hoops shipping eight goals in just three games. Duffy has come in for criticism from sections of the home support as well as some pundits of Scottish football for his questionable positioning at times and his lack of pace.

McAvennie, himself a former Celtic man, believes the Irishman is taking too long to adapt to life in the fast lane after leaving Premier League side Brighton for the Scottish champions. And the retired frontman reckons Duffy may have underestimated the game up here, like Barton did at Rangers in 2016.

"Duffy has come in and he has got a shock to the system,” McAvennie told Football Insider. "A lot of people who come from the Premier League to Scotland think it is easy money and I am not saying Shane Duffy is one of them, an example would be Joey Barton at Rangers.

"The player realises that it is a lot quicker than what they thought. You do not get time on the ball. Duffy’s problem is Brighton defend very deep. They are used to defending on the 18-yard line, so nobody would knock the ball over the top of him.

“But Celtic push on and the full-backs bomb forward and that is an area that Steven Gerrard and Gary McAllister looked to exploit last week. They had a game plan. I think Duffy will learn but he is learning the hard way. In the 92nd minute when Duffy was trying to flick it over the boy’s head, just put it out of the park. If you do that Celtic win the game.

"It is not just Shane’s fault though. There is a lot of players who are not up to scratch yet."