Manchester United star Wayne Rooney last Saturday missed an excellent opportunity to close the gap with the leader in the FTBL world ranking of strikers, Bayern Munich’s Mario Gómez.

Rooney fell victim of the Red Devils’ failure to extract anything more than a draw (1:1) at St Andrews Stadium against No.8 Birmingham City. His plank of just 0.5 points in the game allowed, nonetheless, a modest gain of 8.5 points, and despite the fact that the England international has now cleared the 200-point mark, the gap with the No. 1 in the ranking remains a serious 17 points and change.

Rooney is unlikely to catching up in the next game either, given he will face a daunting plank of 23.99 points to beat when the United take on No.14 Burnley. Even 2 goals will not be enough to beat that plank. Next on the line is the game against second-from-bottom Hull City. Here, Rooney has a better chance with a plank of just 1 point to beat.