VVV-Venlo’s Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda (pictured left), who is being touted as a Manchester United target, is struggling so far in the FTBL ranking of Japanese midfielders with a rating of just 23.39 points.

But Honda will have an opportunity to boost that rating in his next three appearances, when he will need to pick up less than a rating point. In addition, his main rivals, Urawa Red Dianonds’s Yuki Abe and Hideo Hashimoto of Gamba Osaka, have tallies of just 24.72 and 27.24 points, respectively, hardly too far from him. The leader in the ranking is Wolfsburg’s Makoto Hasebe with 83.32 points.

Honda scored twice in the last round of the Dutch league against ADO Den Haag, but the two goals only earned his side a 2:2 draw. He picked up 12.49 rating points for his efforts.