Comparing Keisuke Honda's 2014/15 Stats to His 2013/14 Numbers

When Keisuke Honda signed for AC Milan at the end of 2013, the announcement was greeted with plenty of enthusiasm. The Rossoneri had managed to snap up an experienced—but still young, at 27—playmaker with Champions League and World Cup experience. 

The No. 10 made a name for himself as a gifted playmaker during his four-year stint at CSKA Moscow, and many here in Italy had been very impressed by his performance against the Azzurri for Alberto Zaccheroni's Japan in the 2013 Confederations Cup. 

Since moving to Serie A, however, Honda's career has stalled. His first months with the club during the second half of 2013/2014 are best forgotten—although in fairness to the 28-year-old, you could say that about almost all of his team-mates. 

He managed just two goals in 16 games in all competitions for the Rossoneri in his fist six months. In this campaign, there have been more signs of life from Honda, but he remains inconsistent and seemingly ill-at-ease with manager Filippo Inzaghi's formation. 

Six goals and two assists in his first seven games promised a stellar season from Honda, but since then he's been totally anonymous. He hasn't found the back of the net or provided an assist for Milan since October, a depressing stat for a talented, tricky forward who is also a dead-ball specialist. 

He now looks totally out of place when played wide—where he shone early season—or in his preferred central role. WhoScored.com currently list him as averaging just a single key pass per game, way down on the stats typical of someone in his position. Players like Roma's Miralem Pjanic or Empoli's Mirko Valdifiori manage more than double that. 

According to Squawka.com, Honda has a pass accuracy of 80 per cent this season and a shot accuracy of 65 per cent. Those figures are obviously heavily padded by his excellent start to the campaign. Last year, those numbers were 22 per cent for shooting and 84 per cent for passing. 

Using the same site's player comparison matrix, Honda's stats don't look that bad when compared with Paulo Dybala and Felipe Anderson, two of the league's most impressive attacking players this season. But again, forget about the Milan forward's first seven games, and it's a completely different outlook. 

Before moving to Milan, Honda had rarely scored in 2013/14 for CSKA Moscow, but he was regularly creating chances for his team-mates. That creativity has dried up at the San Siro. 

While trying to engineer a move away from Russia, Honda gave an interview to the Japan Times, as reported by the Daily Mail's Simon Jones, proclaiming that a move to a bigger club would make him a better player: 

If I go to a big club, I'll become an infinitely better player. The improvement I'll make then will be anything but minor.

I'm the type to soak up everything and anything in my surroundings, and if I play with better players, I'll get better. It's how I've been able to get this far in my career.

That step up in quality hasn't happened. If anything, he's regressed. The argument could be made that the club's continuing problems—and a lack of quality in the squad—have influenced things, but other players like Jeremy Menez have managed to impress and make the best of a bad situation with some fine individual efforts. 

A goal and an assist in Japan's recent friendly against Tunisia hints at a return to good form, but Honda will have to do it for his club—and against much better opposition—to silence his critics.