Opinion: No concern over £3.6m-rated Celtic star’s missed opportunity

Celtic striker Georgios Giakoumakis didn’t start the Hoops’ first league game of the season against Aberdeen, but he did come on in the second-half replacing Kyogo, and the Bhoys did look more threatening in attack when he was on the pitch.

What will be remembered about his performance on the day, is that the £3.6m-rated forward missed a great chance to score his first goal of the season. He used excellent strength to hold off a challenging defender, and when it looked easier to score he put the ball past the post.

After the miss the Greek international seemed determined to find the back of the net, and he once again came close with a header wide of goal. Celtic fans shouldn’t be too concerned about the chance that the 27-year-old missed against Aberdeen, as he has already shown how good a player he is in his time at the club.

Indeed, Hoops boss Ange Postecoglou might well have been impressed with the player’s performance overall, as he showed excellent strength to get in position to try and score the goal in the first place.

His head didn’t go down after missing the chance either, as the player was still constantly looking to find the back of the net, and that is always a positive sign for a striker.

It should be remembered that Giakoumakis had a difficult start at Celtic last season, and overcame that to become a key man in the Premiership title win, so you can’t expect one bad miss to have an effect on his confidence.

In fact it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the striker start for the Hoops in the upcoming league match against Ross County this weekend. Postecoglou will have noticed that the Bhoys did look more threatening in attack when Giakoumakis was on the pitch against a packed defence.

It wouldn’t be a shock to see Ross County line-up in a similar style to what Aberdeen did, with keeping players behind the ball and looking to hit on the break.

At times against Aberdeen Celtic found that difficult to break down, but that changed with Giakoumakis’ more direct approach. That could feed into the Celtic boss’ way of thinking for the starting line-up that he is going to select for the Hoops’ second league game of the season.

If Giakoumakis does start for the Bhoys against Ross County, don’t be surprised to see him make up for his miss against Aberdeen by scoring his first goal of the season, he is more than capable of that.