Carl Starfelt left highly impressed with Celtic teammate who is “taking his opportunities”

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Celtic centre-back Carl Starfelt has taken time to highlight the improved performances and goal-return of teammate Giorgos Giakoumakis.

Giakoumakis is in absolutely electric form heading into the international break. The former VVV-Venlo man has 12 goals for the season with as many as 11 of them coming in 2022 alone [Transfermarkt].

The incredible goal return of Giakoumakis has led to a return to the Greece international fold, and he now looks destined to start at Ibrox when we return to action in 2 weeks’ time.

It all adds up to as big a 2022 as Giakoumakis could’ve hoped for, at least so far. And teammate Starfelt, who knows a bit about unfair stick, has taken the time to note his achievement as he bigged up Giakoumakis.

As quoted by the Scottish Sun, the Sweden international said: “Giorgos is doing very well. That’s exactly what you want in a striker — he’s scoring goals and taking his opportunities, but also putting in hard work defensively.

“He’s running a lot and you can see defenders weren’t happy to meet him — he’s a big guy as well.”

Giorgos Giakoumakis has taken his Celtic chance – sky is now the limit for him

It looked as if Giakoumakis’ big goal this year was simply going to be to get into the Celtic team. Granted, the injury to Kyogo gave him an easier route in than he may have had, but he’s certainly seized it.

After yesterday’s stunning hat-trick against Ross County – his second consecutive one at Celtic Park after the 3-2 win over Dundee – there’s an even a debate to be had over whether Giakoumakis is dropped as soon as Kyogo is fit.

It’s clear that Ange Postecoglou won’t be playing both men together. That just isn’t plausible in our system. We know Kyogo on the left doesn’t work, whilst Giakoumakis certainly isn’t a winger either. Ange would have to totally change his set-up to play both strikers up top. So we can forget that happening anytime soon unless we’re desperately chasing a result.

Instead, Ange is going to have a difficult balancing act. It’ll be down to him to determine which opposition is best suited to either man. There will have to be minutes for Giakoumakis even when Kyogo’s back. The worst thing we can do to the Greek striker is keep him stuck on the sidelines again.

That’s not something you can see the manager doing. Especially if Giakoumakis proves to be the hero at Ibrox in 2 weeks’ time. How big a goal in that fixture would be for his career is an intriguing question to pose.

But he’s made all the right noises in 2022 both on the field and off it. Hopefully, it all ends in a trophy-laden campaign.

In other news, Celtic’s Matt O’Riley extremely excited after international message from Danish staff