Part of football's beauty lays in its unpredictability. You can never really know what will transpire on any given matchday—let alone an entire season—which is what makes it such a thrilling, all-consuming ride.
Sometimes players you expect to explode do so, but sometimes they don't. Conversely, plenty who are written off en masse can bounce back and surprise you, and it's this heartwarming theme that this week's B/R Football Ranks delves into.
We've picked out the 10 most improved players, judging their performances from the 2018-19 season against the ones they're turning in this term.
Only Europe's top five leagues were assessed, and we've tried to steer clear of players who have simply returned from injury (such as Goncalo Paciencia of Eintracht Frankfurt) so that true cases of hard work and improvement can be celebrated.