Source: Liverpool_Echo
Leighton Baines is the assist king of Everton FC
PLAYERS who can score goals have become the single most expensive commodity in European football.[LNB]You only need to hear the stellar price tags stuck on footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney to realise that goal-scorers are viewed as footballs true VIPs.[LNB]But what of those who create them? Very few strikers will regularly create a goal from nothing.[LNB]The top sides rely on skilful artisans in midfield who can cross a ball on a sixpence or producer the killer pass which unleashed their centre forward through on goal.[LNB]They too are essential. Yet, when a team is blessed with a defender who can turn producer on a prolific basis, they truly are worth their weight in gold.[LNB]Step forward Leighton Baines who, with nine assists and counting, is ahead of Chelsea's Florent Malouda and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard in the creator stakes.[LNB]Baines, 25, has the most assists of any defender in the Premier League, and feels that creating goals is almost as personally rewarding as scoring, a knack he also possesses, not least from his well-executed free-kicks.[LNB]'An assist is almost as good for me as scoring a goal. It's a bonus,' he says.[LNB]'I'm a defender and my job is to help the team that way, but I love to get forward and contribute as well.'
