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Aitor Karanka had a problem.

It was half-time at the Riverside, the scores were locked at 0-0 and the opposition had created the best chances.

But the bigger issue for the Middlesbrough manager was that his most dangerous attacker had been nullified.

The threat of Adama Traore had been snuffed out by Leighton Baines in the opening 45 minutes last weekend.

Karanka needed to get the former Barcelona youngster into the game, but he was getting no change out of Everton’s left-back, so the Boro boss had no choice but the make him swap flanks.

It was a huge compliment to Baines who, in a team where he was the joint oldest at 32, had ‘old-manned’ the young winger.

There was a time when we were told that Baines would have earned more than 30 caps for England had the defensive side of his game been better, or closer to the level of Ashley Cole.

For many at Goodison, it was an accusation which always prompted quizzical looks, even though Blues celebrated Baines as the league’s, maybe even Europe’s, best attacking left-back at the time.

But is Baines now in a period of his career when his abilities on the back foot will start coming to the fore?

Injury restricted the Blues’ favourite to just 18 league games last season. The trip to the Riverside was Baines’ 19th league appearance of this term.

And comparing his key defensive stats at these points, strongly suggests Baines is maturing into a far more accomplished defender and that the emphasis in his game has shifted.

The number of clearances and blocks the defender has made this season are almost on a par with his output from last term but, according to information supplied by Opta, he is winning more of the tackles he attempts, increasingly successful in more aerial duels and coming out victorious in a higher percentage of the duels he makes, this season.

There’s also a feeling among supporters that Baines simply does not get as forward as much as he once did.

From the time Steven Pienaar began losing his battle with his body, Everton’s left-back has struggled to find a consistent partner in crime on the left-hand side.

By early 2013 it had been official: no other player in Europe was creating as many goal-scoring opportunities as Baines. Two years later he became the Premier League defender with the most assists.

In 2009/10, he clocked up eight league assists, the following season that number had risen to 11 and in the second of Roberto Martinez’s campaigns in charge, he supplied the ammunition for nine goals.

But it feels as though Baines’s game is changing.

His quality and reliability on the ball remains as good as it was, Opta’s stats tell us that Baines is not supplying crosses into the box at the same rate he was last season.

It’s no slight on Baines but, perhaps, another sign of his changing role within the team.

The arrival, and early performances, of Ademola Lookman will provide Baines with opportunities to get forward more, but the teenager also offers challenges to the experienced defender who must overlap with a degree of caution, knowing the winger is talented but still learning his trade and liable to lose possession.

Seamus Coleman, who has already scored five times from right-back this season, does not have the same dilemma to weigh-up. He has greater licence to hurtle forward.

There was a time when Everton fans would have seen that and then looked, almost expectantly, to the opposite side of the pitch to see Baines charging in at the back post looking for a cross.

But things are changing and so, it appears, is Baines yet he remains as vital to Everton as he ever was.

Just in a different way.