Leighton Baines

Sixpence said:
His consistency and basically most of his game reminds so much of Denis Irwin. Not to mention his free kicks and penalty ability, which were also a feature of Irwin's game. The only difference is that Irwin was right footed, but played mainly at left back.
Click to expand...

Irwin was a far better defender IMO, but interesting comparison.

Did no one else notice that it was he at fault for the goal? Hate to say it, but had that been Evra there would be plenty of mentions of it. Goes to show that the scrutiny he would come under if he was to come to OT would be far greater, and he might not always come up smelling of roses.

What a free kick though, best I'v seen in the PL for a while, unless someone else can remind me of one? Last one better than that off the top of my head was Ronaldo vs Portsmouth.
 
Fergus' son said:
Irwin was a far better defender IMO, but interesting comparison.

Did no one else notice that it was he at fault for the goal? Hate to say it, but had that been Evra there would be plenty of mentions of it. Goes to show that the scrutiny he would come under if he was to come to OT would be far greater, and he might not always come up smelling of roses.

What a free kick though, best I'v seen in the PL for a while, unless someone else can remind me of one? Last one better than that off the top of my head was Ronaldo vs Portsmouth.
Click to expand...

No he wasn't.

Both centre backs went for the same ball, lack of communication as one should have sat off whilst the other challenged.
 
That doesn't change fact that he had to track his player.

1357157016328.gif


Defensively responsible players actually do that, watch Neville in this gif.
 
NinjaFletch said:
No he wasn't.

Both centre backs went for the same ball, lack of communication as one should have sat off whilst the other challenged.
Click to expand...

Much of the defending left a lot to be desired but Baines didn't cover himself in glory either, the man he was meant to be picking up scored.
 
Scrumpet said:
Looks like he was trying to play Cisse offside, expecting Ameobi to flick it on.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, still not a great idea though, especially since his other defenders, Neville and Heitinga, didn't seem to have that in mind at all.
 
Amar__ said:
That doesn't change fact that he had to track his player.

1357157016328.gif


Defensively responsible players actually do that, watch Neville in this gif.
Click to expand...

Depends how Everton mark.

Baines tracks him until he enters Distin's zone. If their marking zonally in open play then he's right to leave him to Distin who should have dropped off and let Jagielka challenge. If they mark man for man then he should have stayed with him, yeah.

Neville is tracking a midfield runner.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Depends how Everton mark.

Baines tracks him until he enters Distin's zone. If their marking zonally in open play then he's right to leave him to Distin who should have dropped off and let Jagielka challenge. If they mark man for man then he should have stayed with him, yeah.

Neville is tracking a midfield runner.
Click to expand...

I think it's clear that everybody was marking their man, it would be stupid IMO to do man mark until the ball arrives, and after that to do zone defending.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Depends how Everton mark.

Baines tracks him until he enters Distin's zone. If their marking zonally in open play then he's right to leave him to Distin who should have dropped off and let Jagielka challenge. If they mark man for man then he should have stayed with him, yeah.

Neville is tracking a midfield runner.
Click to expand...

Seems to me that he was anticipating either a clearance or a flick and that he was going to play Cisse offside if centre backs messed up. No one touched the ball and therefor no offside.

Very poor work from whoever went up for the first ball (Jagielka and Distin). Very bad mistake for a defender to lose the ball over you with no one touching it.
 
He really isn't a very good defender but that's some left foot he has on him in fairness. If he were to make the move I find it hard to believe any of us would be complaining. Still, there's surely better options with plenty more years in them than him.

I reckon Krul might be kicking himself for taking that extra step to his left but I'm not sure he's saving it either way. Absolute beauty. His one from just outside the box was near-perfect too. Every bit as difficult given how little time he had to get it up and down, he perhaps just put too much curl on it...there's no-one else in the league that can put that kind of spin on the ball. Must put in an absolute pearler of a cross every game.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Depends how Everton mark.

Baines tracks him until he enters Distin's zone. If their marking zonally in open play then he's right to leave him to Distin who should have dropped off and let Jagielka challenge. If they mark man for man then he should have stayed with him, yeah.

Neville is tracking a midfield runner.
Click to expand...

In that position?? Are you for real? You track the runner.

"Ah well, he's in Distin's zone. So I can leave him."
 
pablotatt said:
In that position?? Are you for real? You track the runner.

"Ah well, he's in Distin's zone. So I can leave him."
Click to expand...

Well he does track him, if Distin defends properly he tracks him to the point where Distin should be picking him up and then goes after him again when Distin fecks up.

It's not great defending, but it seems odd to pinpoint him rather than Distin for that goal.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Well he does track him, if Distin defends properly he tracks him to the point where Distin should be picking him up and then goes after him again when Distin fecks up.

It's not great defending, but it seems odd to pinpoint him rather than Distin for that goal.
Click to expand...

It was a combination of them both, seeing as Baines is continuously linked with us and this is the Baines thread you can see why people are more analytical of his faults in the build up to the goal rather than Distin.
 
I don't have a problem with Baines's defending at all. His overall play is outstanding and, somehow, he just "looks" like he'd be a natural as a United man.

The only issue is whether we need to spend 15m quid on him when we already have Fabio to walk straight into Evra's shoes.
 
Ruud10 said:
I don't have a problem with Baines's defending at all. His overall play is outstanding and, somehow, he just "looks" like he'd be a natural as a United man.

The only issue is whether we need to spend 15m quid on him when we already have Fabio to walk straight into Evra's shoes.
Click to expand...

Fabio hasn't shown enough yet to suggest he can replace Evra.
Baines would be a great addition.

Doubt we will get him all the same.
 
Had Santon looked up and squared it the fact that Baines had again allowed Cisse to ghost in off the flank past him would've resulted in a 2-2 last night. When Evra goes to sleep like that everyone jumps on him. Baines is a solid left back but not a great left back and if he hasn't worked those kinks out of his game at 28 years old I doubt he will, unlike the Patrice of 3 seasons ago Baines doesn't have the pace to compensate for it either.

When square on to a player Baines is at his best but when he's not in a 1 on 1 situation and needs to be mindful of where his opponent is and anticipate where he's coming from he's not as good as many would like to believe. He's been compared to Irwin but his awareness and football intelligence is nowhere near Irwin's level and at 28 I doubt he's suddenly going to develop it.

£15 million would be a bad deal.
 
Makes as many goalscoring chances with his passing as Ribery and Pirlo do and more than any other players in europe.

Thats before factoring in his 3 chances from crosses per game, only 3rd most in europe this time.

Pretty good season.
 
Decotron said:
Thought we got a more realistic view of him today defensively. Without Pienaar protecting him his weaknesses got exposed, thats what we'd see if we bought him imo.
Click to expand...

He's not very good at defending; you can see that from watching him play like today and from stats that back this up.

He's lacking a bit in the pace department, doesn't he? Rafael and Valencia are both very pacy, but they exposed him a couple of times, at least.
 
I'm waiting for Damo to post the whole article.
 
So we failed in Thiago and now we've settled for Fellaini and Baines. Great.
 
Our triple signing of Thiago, Strootman and Ronaldo is actually Baines, Fellaini and McCarthy.
 
feck, I would like to give Fabio a chance before we decide to get someone new in that position. Not that Baines isn't a good player, but I think that Fabio is very talented and can emulate Rafael.
 
We need a left back, but someone who is young and a viable option to replace Evra in a year or two. I'm not convinced either Fabio or Buttner are up to it. Baines' age really is the only thing counting against him.

Baines would be an excellent signing only if he was 4 years younger.
 
Hopefully Kenwright was serious when he said none of his players were for sale.

Coentrao is on the market this summer.
 
Their were rumors that Paddy was wanted back by Monaco, maybe there's some substance to that?
Would be shame to see Paddy leave anyway, he's a proper red.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.