Given that Celtic have yet to lose any of the 38 domestic games where Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt have started together as a defensive duo, any new centre-back arriving at the club has a job on his hands to disrupt the first-choice status of their partnership.
Indeed, with the likes of Moritz Jenz and Stephen Welsh already in reserve, simply edging to the front of the queue to play back-up to Ange Postecoglou’s preferred pairing is a task itself. For Yuki Kobayashi though, the early signs are promising.
The Japanese defender was handed a debut in Wednesday night’s 4-0 win over St Mirren, with Postecoglou giving him the nod to slot in beside Starfelt in the absence of Carter-Vickers, who was still nursing a Hampden hangover in the form of some minor soreness brought on by the national stadium’s swampy surface.
