As the Russian national team prepares to take on Slovenia in the first game of the World Cup 2010 playoffs next Saturday, Zenit’s Konstantin Zyryanov (pictured right) is perfectly poised to surge to the top of the FTBL ranking of midfielders in the Russian Premier League.

Zyryanov currently tops our ranking of Russian midfielders with a tally of 80.06 points, but he is only 3rd in the ranking league-wide, behind Spartak Moscow’s Brazilian Alex (85.13 points) and Rubin Kazan’s Turk Karadeniz Gokdeniz (82.08 points).

Zyryanov will go into the game against Slovenia with a guaranteed bonus of 1.05 rating points; he dropped the points in Russia’s 0:1 home loss to Germany. Even a draw on Saturday could make the Zenit playmaker the best midfielder in the Russian league.