Do Leighton Baines’ stats prove Everton should pursue Aston Villa’s Jordan Amavi?

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The former England regular has not been at his mercurial best for some time now.

The first name on the team-sheet for David Moyes, Roberto Martinez and countless Fantasy Football obsessives the land over, it once seemed inconceivable that Everton would ever attempt to replace the whipped deliveries and dead-ball brilliance of Leighton Baines.

Yet, despite the 32-year-old committing his future to his boyhood club until 2019 with the signing of a new long-term deal, Ronald Koeman has inherited a problem that he cannot simply sweep under the carpet. After all, the original Mr Reliable has only played half the Toffees’ Premier League games this season on the back of just 16 starts in 2015/16.

Injuries are starting to take their toll on a player who was a virtual ever present for over six years and, with Costa Rican international Bryan Oviedo failing to impress when stepping into the breach, Everton’s infamous left-flank suddenly looks a lot less deadly.

It is two or three years since Baines hit his peak, combining intuitively with Steven Pienaar before locating onrushing runners with laser-like precision. After assisting nine goals in 2014/15, the former Wigan Athletic left-back simply doesn’t produce with the same regularity. His goals tally has dropped too, with Romelu Lukaku taking control of the dead-balls in his injury-enforced absence.

And that is without mentioning his alarming statistical slide on the defensive front. Far removed from the well-drilled organisation of the Moyes era, Koeman is yet to right the haphazard tactical wrongs of Martinez, with Baines’ previously underrated qualities in his own third suffering as a result.

Therefore, Everton’s interest in Aston Villa left-back Jordan Amavi, as reported by the Birmingham Mail, is less sacrilege, more careful future planning. At 32, the injury-hampered Baines cannot go on forever and, in the rampaging, pacy, direct Amavi, Koeman may well have found the man to make Everton’s left flank their strong point once more.

At 22, Amavi’s best years lie in wait and, despite a cruciate ligament injury which ensured his debut Premier League campaign ended in disaster, the France under-21 international proved in a few short weeks that he is everything the modern full-back should be.