The Great Baines/Pienaar debate!

Neiler · April 3, 2011

As we all know two very good players, ive been critical of Pienaar on here for not being effective enough in terms of assits and goals.

Thats said he was always a great outlet for us. I remember wondering when Pienaar left would Baines be as effective without his partner on the left hand side and vice versa. In fact Bainsey has probably been better.

As Pienaar sinks down the pecking order at Spurs on his way to bit part player oblivion, i think its fair to open the debate of who made the other look better, i always felt Pienaar wasnt effective enough, but now im beginiing to think Baines maybe made him look a lot better then he actually was!

Discuss?

MapleLeafEvertonian · April 3, 2011

Spurs people I know don't seem to think he is any good :/

Phenom · April 3, 2011

We still need to find that person who can link up with Baines though, Ossie has done it best since peanuts left, watching Magaye yesterday he could be the man for this.

Basil Fawlty · April 3, 2011

Personally I think they worked well together, Pienaar was always willing to cover Baines forward runs when he was on the overlap. Baines is a great LB but he does need an industrious type on the flank with him and Pienaar complimented his style pretty well. Spurs have made a lot of good players look completely average in the last few years, benching them and destroying their confidence.

BlueTak · April 3, 2011

Baines is the better player, but Pienaar was brilliant for us.

Sooner or later, he'll regret that he left.

Phenom · April 3, 2011

BlueTak said:
Baines is the better player, but Pienaar was brilliant for us.

Sooner or later, he'll regret that he left.

This.

Summerskin · April 3, 2011

Pienaar has 1 goal and 1 assist since the opening game of the World Cup 10 months ago, the goal was for us and I believe the assist was from a corner against Newcastle for Spurs.

Billy has 3 assists and 1 goal in only about 700 minutes of playing time, as opposed to Pienaar who has over well over 2000 minutes.

He's been half the player he was since the 09/10 season ended, I think the big profile rightfully built up around him before South Africa 2010 has gone to his head. I do like Pienaar a lot, he's a very good little player with quick feet and brings a great amount of tempo to a game, but we've been the better team without him this season, simples. His shocking final balls and unwillingness to shoot in front of goal cost us before he left.

Out of the 9 league wins this year, he played in only 2 of them.

Baines, on the other hand, has played every minute of every league game, chalked up 5 goals with well over 10 assists to his name, for a left back, I do believe that he is currently the most valuable in the world, in terms of what he can bring to a team.

Baines made Pienaar a better player, he doesn't have anyone like that at Spurs.

Once again, I wish Pienaar all the success he wants, but we all realised before he left that Baines made him tick, I hope he realises this somewhere down the line; and that a quick flirt with the Champions League was not the be all and end all.

Namdrater · April 3, 2011

I couldn't pick one. They both had equally good styles of play suited to what they were doing. I think it was probably Pienaar who helped Baines gain all that confidence to play well and get up the pitch on the left hand side, when he first came into the team in place of Lescott. From there Baines only got better. At the moment he's still lacking someone to play the one-twos with and to get him into the box more regularly - that said, half the time he's able to do it on his own.

Neiler · April 3, 2011

Basil Fawlty said:
Personally I think they worked well together, Pienaar was always willing to cover Baines forward runs when he was on the overlap. Baines is a great LB but he does need an industrious type on the flank with him and Pienaar complimented his style pretty well. Spurs have made a lot of good players look completely average in the last few years, benching them and destroying their confidence.

That said though, Bainsy is an assist monster - has anyone noticed him cutting inside far more after making up yards on the left and making goals where previously he would lay it of to Pienaar.

Tubey · April 3, 2011

As I said a while back, Pienaar is a decent player but desperately overrated. His value was in his industry which allowed Baines to play, not in his attacking skill.

As predicted, he's hardly shone at Spurs. Baines was always the better overall player and Pienaar will definitely regret his move away from Everton sooner rather than later.

I'm guessing he'll return to Holland by next January to Feyenoord or someone, perhaps Ajax.

Neiler · April 3, 2011

Summerskin said:
Pienaar has 1 goal and 1 assist since the opening game of the World Cup 10 months ago, the goal was for us and I believe the assist was from a corner against Newcastle for Spurs.

Billy has 3 assists and 1 goal in only about 700 minutes of playing time, as opposed to Pienaar who has over well over 2000 minutes.

He's been half the player he was since the 09/10 season ended, I think the big profile rightfully built up around him before South Africa 2010 has gone to his head. I do like Pienaar a lot, he's a very good little player with quick feet and brings a great amount of tempo to a game, but we've been the better team without him this season, simples. His shocking final balls and unwillingness to shoot in front of goal cost us before he left.

Out of the 9 league wins this year, he played in only 2 of them.

Baines, on the other hand, has played every minute of every league game, chalked up 5 goals with well over 10 assists to his name, for a left back, I do believe that he is currently the most valuable in the world, in terms of what he can bring to a team.

Baines made Pienaar a better player, he doesn't have anyone like that at Spurs.

Once again, I wish Pienaar all the success he wants, but we all realised before he left that Baines made him tick, I hope he realises this somewhere down the line; and that a quick flirt with the Champions League was not the be all and end all.

Excellent post mate.

Summerskin · April 3, 2011

Neiler said:
Excellent post mate.

Cheers cocka!

DJ Alvez · April 3, 2011

They could each anticipate what they were each gonna do. Baines' 1-2's with peanuts and bainsey then running on and delivering a cross into the box. Watching baines playing for England the other night, you could see him trying emulate what he does week in week out for us. The other England players just didn't utilise him in that way.

ijjysmith · April 3, 2011

Can't answer this one as there isn't a both option.

Together at times they were immense.

Baines' left foot · April 3, 2011

There's no doubt in my mind that Baines is/was the more valuable player for us overall. I was worried that when Pienaar left, Baines would be less effective as he wouldn't be able to find the space he needed that was created by Pienaar. But obviously he's stepped up to the task and he looks to be a better player than he was last season.

Unfortunately I missed the game yesterday and I was especially gutted I was missing it when i saw the subs bench and i knew Moyes would have to put atleast 1 youngster on for a bit. Watched MOTD though and from what i saw Gueye looked threatening.

I saw him against our namestakes in pre-season and was really impressed and i'd hoped to have seen more of him this term, and as people have suggested on here maybe he could become our new left sider? If he can have half the impact that Coleman has had on the opposite flank this season then i'll be ecstatic. (combined price of less that £1m?)