Our next in the daily international break series looking closely at each of Middlesbrough's 12 summer signings and their mixed starts at the football club, focuses on young Dutch defender Rav van den Berg. After yesterday's look at Seny Dieng, we take a look at another who has made a solid start.

Despite being the youngest first-team player signed this summer, Rav van den Berg has played more minutes than all but two of those new arrivals. And were it not for a couple of niggling injuries, chances are he might be top.

That encapsulates two things about the 19-year-old Dutchman's start at Middlesbrough. Firstly, the level of maturity he has displayed since arriving, and secondly, how quickly he has gained the trust of Michael Carrick to become a regular starter at such a young age.

There is no doubt that in joining Boro this summer he arrived with a lot of excitement. Of the 12 new arrivals, it would be fair to put Van den Berg top of the list in terms of potential. To join Boro he turned down moves to some of Europe's elite clubs such as Inter Milan, Dortmund and Bayern Munich, to name just a few.

The reason, he set out very early on, was the desire to play football. And that's exactly what he's done so far at Boro. One thing that was immediately clear from interviewing Van den Berg after the friendly at York City, however, there was never a sense of entitlement with him.

He arrived with a big reputation and with the clubs interested, it could have easily fallen into the 'coup' category of transfers for Boro. And yet he made clear even then, while he believed he had a far better chance of playing, enjoying his football and developing as a player at Middlesbrough, he knew that was not a guarantee.

He conceded back then that he was arriving in a new country and a new league, and at a successful club no less. By no means did he expect to play as much as he has so far. Of course, what game time he has had at Boro has been at right-back. And discussing that fact after the Leicester City win, there were similar sentiments from Van den Berg as he expressed his desire to eventually migrate back to the centre of defence. "When Dael and Paddy are playing like that, of course I will have to wait for my chance there," he conceded (the only thing he did concede that day incidentally).

That outlines his level of maturity off the pitch, and clearly it translates on the pitch too. Despite having played at right-back just once before his move to Boro this summer, Van den Berg has played almost all of his football this season in that role, with injuries in the squad offering Van den Berg his chance to play.

He is helped by the fact that Boro's right-back role under Michael Carrick tends to be more defensive-minded. Quite often the right-back will tuck in as Boro attack, leaving a three-man defence at the back. That suits the fact that the traits of an attacking full-back are not ones suited to his own game. While he proves adequate in receiving and moving the ball on in a similar manner to Boro's centre-backs, we haven't been treated to many marauding runs down the flank from him, which isn't part of the plan anyway.

The defensive side of the game is different to what he's used to though, because quite often, part of being a full-back sees you left defending one-on-one against a winger far more often than you're likely to in a more congested central area. To his credit, he's largely dealt with that with real calm.

Indeed, he struggled at Plymouth Argyle, but beyond that, he's largely been solid for Boro throughout the season, and has clearly earned the trust of Carrick. So much so that he's even played two halves of football at left-back too. There was no better evidence of Carrick's trust though, than in the brief period Tommy Smith was fit before his season-ending injury.

Van den Berg would end up pulling out of the game after being injured in the warm-up, but when teams were initially announced ahead of such a crucial game against rivals Sunderland in front of 40,000 supporters at the Stadium of Light, it was Van den Berg, not Smith, who Carrick had opted to go with. High pressure, high stakes, no problem.

A quick look at his defensive stats shows Van den Berg right up there too. Placing roughly around fifth for most including tackles completed, clearances, interceptions etc, it's the usual experienced names of Darragh Lenihan, McNair and Fry who are the only players to come out ahead of him.

Interestingly, thinking back to that new concept of being a full-back, when facing a dribbler, Van den Berg so far has a 50% success rate - successfully stopping eight attempts to get beyond him with the ball. That places him joint-sixth of any player to face five or more dribbles and is just fractionally worse than Smith - a right-back veteran who played every game he was available for under Carrick last season.

That ultimately tells its own story. Van den Berg is by no means the finished article, but he's certainly arrived at Boro and more than lived up to the huge excitement that surrounded his name. In that respect, he is the perfect example of Boro's recruitment model done right.

As it stands, it looks like Boro will be able to enjoy a few years of Van den Berg's early career, helping him develop in the process before eventually moving him on at a profit. Boro's most exciting summer signing, the prospects of Boro achieving the above already seem very promising. Van den Berg's stock will only rise more and more if he continues to play in the manner he has been.

The weeks and months ahead are certainly going to be interesting for the Dutch under-21 international though. Carrick has expressed a desire to get Van den Berg playing in that central role more often going forward. Competition for places is tough, however, and Smithh's season-ending injury leaves that right-back spot vacant.

Anfernee Dijksteel is just returning from his own injury and put in a quality performance in the cup win at Exeter City recently, reminding everyone what he is capable of too. But after his performance of the highest order against Leicester City last time out, it's hard to see Carrick swaying from Van den Berg right now - unless to fulfil that desire to get him playing at centre-back.

Right now, it doesn't look like it matters to the young defender. Whether he's playing right-back or centre-back, he's ultimately doing exactly what he moved to the Riverside to do. And he's doing so because he's earned it. He's justified the hype rather than lived off it, and he has a very bright future ahead.