Why Leighton Baines is one of the world’s most complete players

Everton manager Roberto Martinez reserved the ultimate praise for defender Leighton Baines on the weekend — declaring him to be one of the greatest footballers in the world.

“You can’t replace a player like Leighton Baines, you can look throughout world football and you won’t find many footballers as complete,” Martinez said via Sky Sports as Everton squeezed out a 2-1 victory against Hull City to keep their impressive start to the season alive.

“Leighton covers everything,” he concluded.

Obviously it’s high praise for Baines, who is fresh off several strong performances for the England national team in the past month, and on the surface, it seems like Martinez has gone a little over the top.

But breaking it down, are his comments actually closer to the truth than we think? Is Baines actually one of the most complete players in world football?

Having been essentially man-marked out of Everton’s attack in recent weeks, Baines hasn’t produced a single goal-scoring chance in his past three performances (which have affected his total this season).

However, the defender still remains one of the Toffees’ best attacking players this year in terms of goal-scoring chances created, and actually led every player in Europe in this category last year.

If he had a clinical finisher like Robin van Persie in the middle awaiting his crosses, there’s no doubts that Baines would finish with many more assists than he has done in the past two years: registering just five from 122 created chances.

Despite plying his trade as a left-back, Baines is also extremely efficient in front of goal and presents a dangerous threat from set-piece situations. The Englishman converted an impressive 21.7 percent of potential goal-scoring chances last year and has followed that up by converting 28.6 percent of his chances this year.

By comparison, the likes of Jordi Alba and Philipp Lahm (who are both close to Baines in the sense that they’re attacking-minded defenders) are yet to score a goal this season and convert any of their potential goal-scoring chances.

Perhaps the biggest misconception about Baines is his defensive talent.

Being such a good attacker, many see him as a secondary winger at Everton, and while that’s true, it does overlook just how sound he is tracking back and snuffing out any potential threat down his flank.

In the past two seasons, Baines has averaged a tackle success rate of 81 percent and has failed in just three of his tackle attempts all year. While his average of just four defensive actions per game this year might not be as high as you’d expect from a defender, his impressive ability to win back the ball is an important aspect of his game and one that often gets overlooked.

Again, by comparison, his 87 percent tackle success rate this year is higher than that of several more “accomplished” defenders such as Mats Hummels, Nemanja Vidic or John Terry. This is where Baines truly establishes himself as one of the best.

Despite playing as a defender (and thus attempting a number of longer passes than a central midfielder would, for example), Baines has still averaged 88% in pass completion this year.

Combine those numbers with his chances created and it’s clear that Baines has skills that few defenders have, or are allowed to have by the formation that their current team employs.