Vasilis Barkas has grabbed his big Celtic pre-season opportunity this summer and now looks to be the firm number one choice.
Barkas had a couple of quiet displays against Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic in our first two warm-up matches. Things then looked a touch ominous for him after injuring himself before the Bristol City game last week. In came Scott Bain instead.
However, yesterday, the Greek stopper reminded us all as to why he was signed in the first place. He made several impressive stops in the first 45 before Bain was given a runout in the second 45.
Some of Barkas’ reactions were extremely impressive. Saves that we unfortunately didn’t come to expect from Bain during his extended run in the team last season.
Barkas was always given some praise by manager Ange Postecoglou post-match [Celtic TV]. And ahead of Midtjylland on Tuesday night, he appears to have won the race to be number one as we kickstart the season.
Vasilis Barkas can build on pre-season with solid Midtjylland showing
It’s been a fine pre-season for the stopper after a tough year last season. In truth he badly needed a fresh start after the lack of trust shown in him by Neil Lennon.
However, all of these matches have just been the pretend stuff. It gets serious on Tuesday night, and that will be Barkas’ defining moment. The game in which we finally find out whether he’s turning things around or not.
Of course, the argument is there that you stick with him regardless of what happens this week. But the fact remains that Vasilis needs a big performance. Especially with talk of Fraser Forster potentially returning doing the rounds again [Scottish Sun].
So we’ll see if he can step up on Tuesday and be the dominating shot-stopper we need him to be.
For now, however, the fans are definitely getting back on the Barkas bus.
In other news: Barcelona icon Iniesta’s Sunday tweet to new Celtic signing Kyogo Furuhashi
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