Barkas has failed to deliver but dire defence has had effect, says Rough

JUST as strikers are judged on goals, goalkeepers tend to be rated by the saves they make — and not clean sheets because they don’t tell the whole story.

For example, Celtic’s Vasilis Barkas has nine to his name in 20 appearances this season, which is a respectable average until you note that, in four of those games, the opposing team didn’t record a single effort on target.

Then you notice that the £5million summer signing from AEK Athens has conceded 21 goals from a total of 48 shots or headers on target, meaning that almost every second one beats him. On top of that, the Greek international has yet to make a memorable, match-winning save for Neil Lennon’s side.

That is a concern for former Partick Thistle, Hibernian,

Celtic and Scotland goalkeeping legend Alan Rough.

‘When you’re a goalkeeper and you join Celtic or Rangers, then you need to make an immediate impact when you’re given the opportunity and he hasn’t done that,’ he said.

‘He’s not been helped by the fact that Celtic haven’t been playing particularly well. If he’d been playing in a decent Celtic team, he wouldn’t have had 48 shots to deal with in the first place. He might have had ten or 12.

‘But that’s the way it is and the unfortunate thing about him is that he hasn’t made a big save. When you play in goal for the

Old Firm, you’re generally not up against it and you’re not called upon that often.

‘However, when you are called upon to make a big save, you’re expected to make it. When you look back at Packie Bonner, Artur Boruc, Fraser Forster and Craig Gordon — they didn’t just make saves, they made the big saves in Europe and domestically that they weren’t expected to make.

‘Then there’s Allan McGregor at Rangers, who has had next to nothing to do during games this season but he’s making important saves whenever he’s had to.

‘Barkas hasn’t done that and, in fact, he’s let in a few efforts that you’d thought he should have saved.

‘The stats speak for themselves and he hasn’t won a game for Celtic, which is the biggest complaint against him right now.

‘I would give him the benefit of the doubt because of the defence that he’s playing behind, though. Any goalkeeper will tell you that, if you have two big, solid guys right in front of you, it makes your life so much easier.

‘But when you have a back four or a back three and it’s being chopped and changed every single week, and they aren’t playing well themselves, then it falls on to you as well.

‘It’s a collective problem, not just Barkas (pictured). But unless he starts making some big saves, he’ll be banging his head off a brick wall with the support.

Rough sympathises with Barkas’ plight but can’t envisage a happy ending to this particular Greek tragedy.

‘I don’t know Barkas, so I can’t say what he’s like as a man but most keepers, if they’re going through a bad spell, will just knuckle down and say: “I’m only as good as my next game”,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately for him, with the run that Celtic are on, every game is a pressure game and it’s not going well for anyone.

‘I can’t say anything positive about Barkas, though, because there’s been nothing positive to say.

‘When I was playing behind defenders and I knew them all, their strengths and weaknesses, I knew that I’d pull them out of a hole at times and they’d do the same for me.

“That’s not how it is at Celtic right now, though. No one’s helping anyone else and everyone is fighting their own corner. Shane Duffy’s trying to get his game in order, Kristoffer Ajer is doing the same and, when Christopher Jullien was fit, he wasn’t up to scratch. Barkas hasn’t been helped by that.

‘You don’t pay £5m for a goalkeeper unless you’ve watched him and phoned round to find out more about him but, at the moment, he’s in the same category as the rest of that defence. Everyone lacks belief and is only concerned with playing for themselves rather than being a unit.’