2017/18 Leighton Baines

[sageyefc]

Awful

 

[Big Fat Sam]

We need to be thinking about and purchasing a successor, no doubt but desperate?

We are desperate for a CM that can play a forward pass. - ROONEY
We are desperate for a ST to supplement Tosun- one with rapid pace. - DCL
We are desperate for a CB to rid us of Williams. - KEANE
We are desperate for a CM who can supplement / rotate with Gueye. - SCHNEIDERLIN / DAVIES

There is no desperation for Baines. He's an able full back who, as you rightly say, needs replacing in good time.

 

[Stephenlloyd]

its trendy to write him off because he doesnt do the things he did with pienaar anymore

Ha ha I’ve heard it all. Trendy to write him off .
May have something to do with him being 33 and doesn’t get goals or double figure assists anymore, like he did at his peak

 

[MikeH72]

Buy a left back.

 

[Saint Domingo]

He cannot be first choice next season, but we all know he will be.

 

[Toffeelover]

He cannot be first choice next season, but we all know he will be.

I hope not and we get some one in.

 

[Canuck Darryl]

We're a club that is weak in so many positions, that is understandable that powers that be see a player, while getting a little long in the tooth, is still putting in decent shift, so they shift attention elsewhere. The problem is, the reason we're short of talent ( or one of them, anyway ), is the failure to find replacement players before the players that will need replacing, need replacing.

Baines is doing alright, but another left back should be pretty high on the shopping list.

 

[Tel001]

Baines is past his best , that isn't in doubt, but he's not our biggest problem, not even close. We need a DOF, manager, 2-3 CM at least one more striker, a left mid and need to get rid of basically all of our CB's apart from mason .

 

[Paulie]

We should have signed Robertson years ago as understudy, he'd be playing as a regular by now and Baines would be a back up, which is what he should be at his age.

 

[MikeH72]

Baines is past his best , that isn't in doubt, but he's not our biggest problem, not even close. We need a DOF, manager, 2-3 CM at least one more striker, a left mid and need to get rid of basically all of our CB's apart from mason .

Well it is quite a big problem actually because if he gets injured we're left with the situation we were in for 4 months this season with a barely professional standard footballer playing left back.

 

[Tel001]

Well it is quite a big problem actually because if he gets injured we're left with the situation we were in for 4 months this season with a barely professional standard footballer playing left back.

We do need another LB and ideally we would buy someone better than baines and use him as back up.. but we have so many more areas that need attention. All our CB need sold and only Keane will get us a fee. So buying 3 CB two of which are starters is more important ... CM again needs at least two decent first choice players and we need another striker because niasse and DCL aren't good enough

 

[MikeH72]

We do need another LB and ideally we would buy someone better than baines and use him as back up.. but we have so many more areas that need attention. All our CB need sold and only Keane will get us a fee. So buying 3 CB two of which are starters is more important ... CM again needs at least two decent first choice players and we need another striker because niasse and DCL aren't good enough

I'd argue we need a left back before any of those. We do still need all of those though.

 

[Papa Shango]

We need to be thinking about and purchasing a successor, no doubt but desperate?

We are desperate for a CM that can play a forward pass.
We are desperate for a ST to supplement Tosun- one with rapid pace.
We are desperate for a CB to rid us of Williams.
We are desperate for a CM who can supplement / rotate with Gueye.

There is no desperation for Baines. He's an able full back who, as you rightly say, needs replacing in good time.

I disagree because he has had quite a few niggly injuries as of late and is getting to an age where its a struggle to play him every week.

Our back ups for the position are Martina and Funes Mori. Neither of which are left backs (or particularly good) and do not play in a similar way to Baines which means our balance would be all over the place. If we lose him for even a few weeks we will suffer and we need someone who at the very least can step in and perform at left back in a similar manner to Baines, preferably someone who will replace him and then Baines can be the back up.

 

[atrottel]

I grew up supporting Everton partly because of Brian Labone.
I came to maturity when Latchford was walking on water.
I was long away and travelling when the Dogs of War were biting (and there was no internet and social media in those days).
For me, Baines is the closest that the new generation has come to a player that I can really appreciate. Arteta came close, so did Cahill, even McCarthy managed it for a season or so, but Baines is an Everton player for me.

(Coleman isn't far behind him either.)

 

[Death]

He's still very good. I have so much confidence something good will happen when he's on the attack. Very intelligent player always was.