CARL STARFELT has had a shaky start to his Celtic career – we’re not going to pretend any different.

However, the defender has shown he can defend well and play intelligently to read the game. That’s gone under the radar and his high profile mistakes are being used to keep him down – even after a good performance.

After his freak own goal against Alkmaar on Thursday, I felt the defender came onto a game and shook off the early setback to help Celtic secure a place in the Europa League group stages.

On Sunday, at Ibrox, the defender put in an excellent performance. The Swede helped to really restrict the home side. A goal from a corner was Celtic’s undoing, Carl Starfelt looked to be marking Conor Goldson and Filip Helander got the goal. This somehow was made into a Starfelt mistake and John Hartson was in the Sky Sports studio sticking the boot into the defender – I have no idea why.

One red top gave the defender a measly 5 out of 10 for his performance too. Again why?

There are fans in our support also that see a player make some early mistakes and from then on the player is deemed less than – even when they do their job right. Carl seems to be suffering from this phenomenon.

The Swedish international had an 87% pass completion rate, winning 11 duels out of 19, making 3 clearances and won more than half of his aerial duels. [FotMob]

The defender put in a good performance – so why the negative hysteria?

Carl has played nine games for Celtic and has been playing with some really young defenders who are also trying to adapt to a new football philosophy. If you’re a Celtic fan, give the guy a break and ignore the media when they try to whip you up into their way of thinking.