Leighton Baines

[blulouie]

was superb today, he had to be with osman in front of him, but he managed to do the defending for two people

Really good point that ,the sooner our left mid is sorted out the better.One thing for sure Osman isnt the ansewer.
Whether its a fully fit Pienaar ,a more disciplined Mirallas or a new signing in the summer still got plenty to offer Bainsey...class act.

 

[bobafro]

I found Baines position really interesting against United yesterday.
Before Di Maria came on united had practically no width on that right hand side. It looked to me as if Baines was sharing the man marking duties of their central midfielders with Barry and McCarthy. He took up a central position really often and he made more than one overlap/run right down the centre of the pitch... it made me wonder if this is the beginning of his transition into the defensive midfielder role.

Anyone else notice this?

 

[toffeestillidie]

I found Baines position really interesting against United yesterday.
Before Di Maria came on united had practically no width on that right hand side. It looked to me as if Baines was sharing the man marking duties of their central midfielders with Barry and McCarthy. He took up a central position really often and he made more than one overlap/run right down the centre of the pitch... it made me wonder if this is the beginning of his transition into the defensive midfielder role.

Anyone else notice this?

Noticed this too, he was given plenty of license to run through the middle, and was playing just behind Lukaku for about 5 minutes as well.

This season I've seen him make more central runs than ever in the past, though I don't think it's necessarily to transition him into a central midfield role. Under Moyes we became somewhat predictable in playing down the left, Pienaar's ability to notice when the defense shifted over and play the ball centrally is part of the only reason that teams weren't able to completely neutralize Baines' threat down the left. Absent Pienaar's creativity in those situations, I think Baines' has had to make more runs centrally (obviously under instructions from Martinez to do so) to avoid becoming predictable on the wing.

 

[SpurtingLesbian]

I found Baines position really interesting against United yesterday.
Before Di Maria came on united had practically no width on that right hand side. It looked to me as if Baines was sharing the man marking duties of their central midfielders with Barry and McCarthy. He took up a central position really often and he made more than one overlap/run right down the centre of the pitch... it made me wonder if this is the beginning of his transition into the defensive midfielder role.

Anyone else notice this?

Oh Good Lord!

are we still trying desperately to play Baines out of position?
​

 

[bobafro]

The other possibility is that is was just done to specifically target Uniteds asymmetrical formation where they have all their width on one side of the pitch.

 

[bobafro]

Oh Good Lord!

are we still trying desperately to play Baines out of position?
​

Nope, just discussing one of our players who is usually hugging the touchliine playing much more centrally in a game where we hammered Manchester United 3-0.

Did I say that he should play as a central midfielder? Just asking a question mate (after noticing the difference in yesterdays game)

 

[Huyton Layne]

I'm just glad he survived the attempts to have him put down so Ovideo and Garbutt could mud wrestle in front of their fanboys for his position.

 

[Toffeelover]

After Sunday's game, Leighton Baines is top of the league for assists. Played Leighton.

 

[blukaku]

After Sunday's game, Leighton Baines is top of the league for assists. Played Leighton.

for a defender?

 

[AaronTheBlue]

Reason Baines was so far up was because osman is absurdly useless at everything

 

[Titus Bramble]

He's boss. Always has been. This is why he plays and Garbutt/oviedo don't.

 

[domingo77]

I found Baines position really interesting against United yesterday.
Before Di Maria came on united had practically no width on that right hand side. It looked to me as if Baines was sharing the man marking duties of their central midfielders with Barry and McCarthy. He took up a central position really often and he made more than one overlap/run right down the centre of the pitch... it made me wonder if this is the beginning of his transition into the defensive midfielder role.

Anyone else notice this?

I think I know that you're talking about - but I though that this was just the result of his slow return from taking a corner at the street end?

 

[maccavennie]

Superb last week with Osman in front of him. Absolutely pitiful today with Mirallas in front of him. Hmmmm indeed.

 

[Fresh Prince of Belle Val]

for a defender?

Yeah, he was already leading it, he's just extended his lead.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Superb last week with Osman in front of him. Absolutely pitiful today with Mirallas in front of him. Hmmmm indeed.

We go to either extreme. We either have some of the league's best interplay between the likes of Pienaar and Baines or we make it look like we've no idea how to get the ball out of defense down the flank. At times today Baines was literally playing 30 yard passes into centre mid trying to pick out someone like Naismith. They were suicide balls but there was nothing else on. The irony of Martinez's team is when someone gets the ball the only pass that's ever on is backwards, whereas under Moyes we had all these intelligent players like Osnan Arteta and Pienaar buzzing around offering angles yet we'd more often than not just go straight to Cahill's head. Everton all over.