Aberdeen interim manager Peter Leven has urged Duk to step up and help Aberdeen finish the season strongly.
Duk, 24, netted 18 times during his debut campaign last season and gained widespread plaudits for his exciting style. However, the Cape Verde international has failed to live up to that hype this time out - scoring just seven times from 42 appearances.
The striker came off the bench and successfully influenced an important home win over Ross County at the end of March, but then really struggled to create anything or impact the latest draw against Livingston after joining the last 25 minutes as a substitute. Summing up the inconsistency of his past year.
Leven, who remains in charge at Pittodrie until the board find a permanent successor, reckons Duk is a confidence-based player and wants the forward to find the goal trail to ease the burden on his fellow attacker Bojan Miovski, and ultimately fire them up the Scottish Premiership table.
"Duk made a great impact against Ross County," the Dons boss recalled. "I tried to give him confidence and said to him when it is one vs one you are going to lose the ball sometimes. But just keep getting at them because if you are a defender you don’t want Duk running at you. He is powerful and strong and can be effective starting or coming off the bench."
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He continued: "I think he has been a bit frustrated this year. Duk is a kind of introvert but he is a great kid. When you talk to him he is always smiling, one to one.
"Obviously I never saw Duk last year as I wasn’t here but I have watched clips and stuff. You can see what he can do such as against Ross County with the close control and spin was fantastic Duk can win you a game.
“He is still young. Duk is a good, good player and a big part of this changing room and a big part of this club. Hopefully he can get a bit of confidence. I need Duk firing. I need them all firing to be honest as it’s a tough run in."
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