One of the most heated discussions in the world of Fantasy Football will always be “is Leighton Baines worth his hefty price tag?” Due to Everton’s unkind early fixtures, most Fantasy managers (me included) have steered clear of Baines. But are we being too hasty in ignoring one of the Fantasy game’s most potent forces in recent years?
At the time of writing Baines had a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) ownership of 15%, far behind the likes of Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic (20%), Aston Villa’s Ron Vlaar (25%), Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren (28%) and Tottenham’s Eric Dier (23%).
Looking at Baines’ track record this seems odd as he has been amazingly consistent over the last four seasons, where he has averaged 165 points per season. His yearly average haul comes in at 22 FPL bonus points, 10.5 clean sheets, six assists and 4.75 goals. Who would not want to own a piece of that?
Many Fantasy managers argue that they would rather opt for a cheap defence and reinvest the money in attacking midfielders and strikers.
In contrast, many argue Baines should be seen as a midfielder due to his attacking threat and set piece duties. Keeping clean sheets are just an added bonus, they claim.
HOW DOES HE COMPARE?
I have decided to compare Baines with the similarly priced defender Ivanovic and, in midfield, Gylfi Sigurdsson.
| Baines | Ivanovic | Sigurdsson | |
| Successful dribbles | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Successful crosses | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Goal attempts | 1 | 8 | 6 |
| Probes into Opposition box | 7 | 8 | 6 |
This shows he maintains a strong potential for assists to bolster the case for drafting him in. In terms of goal attempts, though, he is way behind Ivanovic, but I think it’s a matter of time before Baines starts picking up attacking returns. Martinez will surely also tighten up his defence after the 3-6 loss at home to Chelsea. Baines can only benefit from this.
EUROPA LEAGUE
Everton have Europa league duties this season so we need to keep an eye on this. Everton’s group stage schedule is as follows:
18 Sept Wolfsburg (H)
2 Oct Krasnodar (a)
23 Oct Lille (a)
6 Nov Lille (H)
27 Nov Wolfsburg (a)
11 Dec Krasnodar (H)
How this will affect Baines is debatable. I can’t see him being rotated in Premier League games unless injured.
Fixtures
Everton’s fixtures are another factor to consider, especially when they pick up after Gameweek 7, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd then out of the way Everton face:
AVL, bur, SWA, sun, WHM, tot, HUL, mci, QPR, sot, STO, new, hul up to the January wildcard.
These games should provide opportunities for decent returns at both ends of the pitch for Baines.
9 years, 7 months agoMy brother, A proud owner of Baines would be happy reading this article!