There are bigger problems at Celtic than Scott Bain but enough is enough

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Neil Lennon continues to stick with his goalkeeping experiment that continues to result in embarrassment after embarrassment.

Sure, Scott Bain isn’t the main problem at Celtic. We know our biggest issues run deeper, and goodness knows we’ve discussed it at length over the last month or so.

However, Bain’s record since coming back into the team has been extremely poor. He took over the gloves from Vasilis Barkas after the Greek stopper shipped three goals against Milan.

Bain has now been given each of our last seven games. He’s conceded 16 in them – an incredible amount of goals let in. Last night he saw another four fly past him against Sparta Prague.

Listen, he hasn’t been at fault for many of the goals he’s shipped this season considering how poor our defence has been over the piece. But he’s not doing anywhere near enough to justify the gloves.

People will ask themselves whether Barkas would be performing any better. After all, he’s not exactly made many stunning saves since signing from AEK Athens in a £4.5million summer move (Scottish Sun).

But he hadn’t had anywhere near as bad a run of form as Bain has had in terms of statistics. Barkas played 14 of our first 15 games of the season and only conceded nine.

You could say Bain has had a tougher run of games, but let’s read out some of the fixtures Barkas has played in. Ferencvaros (H), Kilmarnock (A), Dundee United (A), Hibernian (H), AC Milan (H), Rangers (H). He had his fair run of tough games during his run too.

Barkas is the club’s big investment. Bain is a back-up and he knows he’s a back-up. Had Barkas made some of the errors his rival has made then he would be getting absolutely hounded for it by many.

So surely, then, it’s time to chuck Barkas back in against Ross County on Sunday in the Betfred Cup? We have some extremely winnable domestic fixtures coming up, with four of our next five league games at Celtic Park. Now couldn’t be a more perfect time to integrate Barkas back into the mix.

Here’s a look at what some of the supporters are saying about the goalkeeping issue after Bain’s miserable display in Prague:

https://twitter.com/aboutceltic/status/1332030572428992512

https://twitter.com/FantasticForre1/status/1332030599989768192

https://twitter.com/rhys67/status/1332044421550968834

https://twitter.com/peter_w67/status/1332011658366087168