How good a player is Steven Pienaar?

[jtl60]

I've always thought Pienaar was awesome and never got the respect he really deserves, however he has really faded in recent months and when he is not playing well all his little flicks and back heels don't come off and its easy to get wound up by him. He was clean through against QPR last week and decided to pass out to Mirallas ( I think) who was outside the box at the time, why??

 

[evilwebby]

Pienaar's the architypal enigma. He's got great skill and is a matchwinner on his day, but his day doesn't come around often enough, and he's not on quite the same wavelength as everyone for many matches. Ultimately I put this down to the "footballing brain" and decision making. He doesn't quite know when to keep it simple.

 

[boris]

Has always been massively over rated imo.

He's a good player but he owes a lot to Leighton Baines, he's made him.

If we do wander into any money this summer then replacing Piennar must be high up on the list of to do's and I'd love to see someone like Sessegnon come in and take his position.

Striker, Centre Half, Centre Midfielder, Replacement for Piennar in that order is a must if we want to challenge top 4 although I do believe in Barkey, Lundstram and Duffy we have players who could play big roles next year. Pienner shouldn't be a 1st choice starter for a top 4 team although he'd be a great option to have from the bench.

 

[LTblue]

Hasn't had a great season by his standards, usually one of the finest creative midfielders in the league, not hit the heights this year but I would still rather have him in the team than not. People saying he's reliant on Baines are wrong as well, Baines was out injured for a spell last season and Pienaar was awesome.

 

[banno]

Hasn't had a great season by his standards, usually one of the finest creative midfielders in the league, not hit the heights this year but I would still rather have him in the team than not. People saying he's reliant on Baines are wrong as well, Baines was out injured for a spell last season and Pienaar was awesome.

Agree. Can't leave your most skilful player out of the team. We are worse without him. In form or not.

 

[steken1]

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him on the bench the next game. That'll go down like a lead balloon with the ninja.

 

[Housequake]

He's scored 6 goals and set up 8, statistically he's having one of his best seasons with us but stats don't show the full picture as we can all see he's far from what we know he's capable of.

Time to start moving him in field I think, he's getting on and runs around like a blue arsed fly closing people down so it's doing him no good when he's played predominately out wide, considering he drifts around midfield anyway I think it could be a wise move.

 

[Carlito]

Pienaar has been hit and miss this season but he's still one of Everton's better players. Also, it's ridiculous to suggest Baines 'made' him. He was just as good playing in front of Lescott.

 

[blueblue]

Since Gibson has come into our team our style of play has changed. Gibson acts as a fulcrum for the entire team,he is constantly receiving the ball or moving it on from his position in central midfield.Because of this the ball is distributed much more evenly all around the field and I think Pienaar gets a little less possession because of this ,even though he still makes himself available.As well because we now have a wide player on the other wing I think Pienaar is playing a wider role than last season and see less of the ball than before when he was picking the ball up all over the field.Finally,we have seen our two full backs acting as wingers in the second half of this season which forces others to be more vigilant in their defensive duties and this also affects Pienaar.

In summary,I think that his role has changed as the formation and style of the team has changes,he is still doing a valuable job,but it is in a different role.