Opinion piece by Billy Gaddi
Vasilis Barkas signed for Celtic during the summer transfer window and it is fair to say he has had a less than impressive start at the champions.
Large portions of the Celtic support don’t seem to have confidence in Barkas but is this opinion fair?
The Greek international had big shoes to fill after colossal keeper, Fraser Forster, returned to Southampton.
Forster was not short of influential performances for the hoops last season and it was always going to be hard for a new goalkeeper coming in, however, we are yet to see a performance close to that of the Englishmen’s from Barkas.
Barkas has played nine Premiership games this season and has kept a clean sheet in five of those games whereas when you compare this to Forster’s first nine Premiership games, he also only kept the opposition from scoring five times.
Do stats tell the full story though? By nine games in Forster had already shown his prowess through an impressive display against Lazio whereas the 6ft 4’ Greek is yet to show anything close to that with the bhoys.
The stats have shown Barkas to be a very reliable goalkeeper for AEK Athens keeping 61 clean sheets in 111 games for the Greek champions.
Could this be a confidence issue? Barkas has shown good qualities this season in spells when it comes to coming for crosses and distribution and should be something Celtic fans take confidence in.
The big man between the sticks is currently injured with back problems and it is not known thus far when he will return.
Speaking to Sky Sports about Barkas before the Aberdeen game Lennon said: “He [Barkas] came off training with a back injury.
“He wanted to give it a go yesterday but he couldn’t manage it after a collision in the game on Thursday night”.
Ultimately, Barkas is yet to show the Celtic support what was expected of him since signing but there is still time for him to turn it around like many of the Celtic greats.
Studshowing 