Melbourne Victory head coach Kevin Muscat believes Keisuke Honda can get even better despite his stellar start to the season.
Honda was on the scoresheet once more as Victory cruised to a 4-1 win over the Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park on Sunday.
The Japanese star has made a fine start to his Victory career, scoring twice and contributing three assists in four Hyundai A-League games.
Muscat was pleased with Honda’s performance against the Mariners, but feels there is even more to come from the 32-year-old.
“His contribution is immense,” he told a news conference.
“And you can start to see Kosta (Barbarouses), Jimmy Troisi, Storm Roux, players around him, the combinations will continue to get better.
“But he came in for some serious treatment as well, some hard challenges on him and he just picks himself up and wants to get on with it. He’s not one to make a fuss and roll around, he just gets up and gets on with it and sends a great message to the rest of his team.
“Storm Roux’s particularly gaining from Keisuke because he gets a lot of attention and he drags people away from maybe where they’re meant to be defensively, opens a lot of space up for others and over time, you’ll see we’ll have a greater understanding and utilise the space that he leaves because he obviously draws a lot of attention from the opposition.
“His contribution again was good and going forward, I expect Keisuke to get better.”
Victory moved into fourth on the table after its second straight win, and faces Sydney FC on November 25.