He's flown under the radar in comparison to some of the big transfer success stories at Celtic so far this season.
But it could be argued no Parkhead star has made more from Ange Postecoglou's unwavering faith than Carl Starfelt.
The Australian boss' patience and cool-headed management style has brought the likes of Anthony Ralston and Tom Rogic back from nowhere, but he's steadfastly stuck by Starfelt when many other managers would have pulled the plug.
Despite a number of shaky performances earlier in the season, he's been their most used defender in terms of minutes on the pitch – and their third-most used player overall behind Joe Hart and Callum McGregor.
Recent performances have won back a sizeable section of the support, who believed Christopher Jullien would walk back into the team alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers following his return from injury. But a glance at the numbers shows you Postecoglou's faith in the Swedish stopper was never blind – or misplaced.
He doesn't have the brash, commanding presence that fills Celtic fans with confidence whenever Carter-Vickers flies into a challenge or strolls out with the ball at his feet while there's a nervous streak to him his American compatriot doesn't have.
But over the course of his first season at Parkhead, he's improved at covering up those deficiencies, and that's allowed his impressive underlying game to shine through more and more.
Over the course of the campaign so far, Starfelt has won the ball back for Celtic just as often per match on average (9 per game) as Carter-Vickers.
He's also prepared to take the risks his partner in crime isn't; a far larger number of those recoveries have been in the opposition half (1.42 vs 0.92).
That may lead to him being caught out of position occasionally, but it also makes him a quietly integral cog of the relentless pressing machine Postecoglou is trying to create.
Carter-Vickers wins a higher percentage of his challenges (75 per cent vs 66 per cent) while he also wins far more of his headers on average, and that's the part of his game that Starfelt needs to work on.
But it's worth noting he's up to 71 per cent in his last five matches; near enough exactly the same as the on-loan Spurs man has managed in the same period.
The perception Carter-Vickers is better on the ball also doesn't stand up to statistical analysis. Starfelt completes marginally more of his passes (94 per cent) than the American (92 per cent) while he also gives the ball away significantly less often (2.4 per game vs 3.1 per game).
Starfelt isn't the rock-and-roll, all-action centre-back that gets the fans purring. On balance, it's easy to see why many feel he's a long way from being one of the best defenders at the club, given there's the odd mistake in there, sure, and he's prone to a crisis of confidence.
But he brings plenty to the table that often flies by unnoticed. He's a better ball-winner than he gets credit for, an effective pressing defender, and a fine recycler of possession. That's evidently enough for Postecoglou to work with.
It would have been easy for Starfelt to get lost in the shuffle amid all the major success stories at Celtic this season, but despite a couple of early wobbles, he's held his manager's faith.
And if the numbers tell us anything, it's that that's no fluke. And if the Hoops are to fend off Rangers and lift the title come May, they'll need more of the same from their underrated yet ever-present man at the back.
