CELTIC goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas has confessed he has found making the transition from Greek to Scottish football challenging since his £5m move from AEK Athens because of the style of play in this country – and the rain.
The 26-year-old, despite keeping his fourth clean sheet in six games in the 5-0 victory over Ross County in Dingwall on Saturday, insisted that he and his fellow new signings need more time to settle.
However, he stressed that Celtic, still six points behind Premiership leaders Rangers with two games in hand, are now confident they can win every match they go into and lift the title this season.
And Barkas predicted that Neil Lennon’s side, who are set to take on St Mirren in the league in Paisley on Wednesday, will just improve further as they play more together.
“It was not so easy for me in the opening weeks because I was coming from another country and the football here is different,” he said.
“There is more heart here amongst the players. Also, things like a lot of the matches have rain, so the pitches are faster, and that is something which you have to adjust to.
“These are the things you start to find out. I can get better because I will get more and more used to the different situations which will come to me.
“I have tried to find what the coach wanted from me and I tried to find what my team mates want from me and, with every game, I start to feel better and better. But I’m sure I need more time to see what Scottish football wants from me.”
Barkas added: “All of my team-mates are feeling very good and feeling as though we can win wherever we go and whatever match we go into.
“That is the way it has to be at Celtic and we're going to become better the more we find ourselves on the field and get used to each other. We are waiting to have a lot of wins and take the championship again.
“We need to have some time. We are 11 different people who started. Maybe some of the other players who were involved have played together in the past, but not all of us at the same time. I come here and try to find my way into it.
“All of my team mates are very good players and I am very happy for this because when you go into a big club, you like to see big players with big talent. At the same time, they all work so hard in training each day and you can then see that in the games."
Barkas had Irishman Shane Duffy, Frenchman Christopher Jullien and Dane Kristoffer Ajer in front of him against Ross County on Saturday and was pleased with how the new-look defence functioned.
He is confident that Lennon’s rearguard will gel as they play more games together in the coming weeks.
“We have to work on that game by game,” he said. “We will do that. We are all different people, so we will need to find ourselves and I believe our communication is not so bad.
“For sure, after games, we can talk about how we can make this part of the game better."
Barkas added: “I enjoyed the game against Ross County a lot. We hadn’t played together for a while after the international games, so it was good to play again with my new team-mates and I was very happy that we managed to win the match.
“It felt good. I always feel good when I do my job and my job is to keep clean sheets. So when I manage to do that, it makes me feel as though I am helping the team.
“I don’t put pressure onto myself. I came from a big club in Greece and I know that Celtic is one of the biggest clubs in the world, so every game we want to win.
“Sometimes we might not play as well, but every match is special in that at Celtic you have to win them.
“I try to do my best every single game. Okay, there are a lot of games at Celtic when I might not have something to do or I might not have so much to do.
“That’s because I have good defenders and good players in front of me, but I still have to be focused all of the time and keep speaking with them. Even if I have lots to do or not lots to do, I have to keep that focus all of the time.”
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