As the dust settles after a rather unpleasantly high-average Gameweek, it’s time to lick our wounds, get back to the drawing board and look ahead. With one of the strongest forthcoming fixture lists (AVL, bur, SWA, sun, WHU, spurs, HUL), Everton, and specifically their penalty-taking defender Leighton Baines, look too good to ignore. But just how do we fit this 7.0-priced defender into our team?

Those with the spare cash and a sacrificial lamb ready to be slaughtered are spared the deliberation that shall follow.For the rest of us, though, it’s time to indulge. While I do realize that this could be a very specific decision on each individual’s part, we’ll look at the usual suspects that may be compromised to fulfil our Leighton Fantasy.

We’ll try and work around this supposed Perfect Front Eight (PF8) :

Angel Di Maria | Cesc Fabregas | Raheem Sterling | Gylfi Sigurdsson| George Boyd

Diego Costa | Sergio Aguero | Danny Welbeck or Graziano Pellè

Ideally we’d like Baines sitting atop that front 8 but for most of us that’d mean a Wildcard and a whole lot of fillers/enablers sprinkled on the top. In short, one of of these players, or a key player in defence, will have to be sacrificed.

Like-for-like defender sacrifice

Branislav Ivanovic → Baines

The 26.8% that are currently basking in the glories of the big Serb have a rather straightforward ticket onto the Baines Wagon. But picking between the two can feel like choosing between which kidney to donate. Comfort is, however, afforded by the history books. Consider the last three seasons and Baines comfortably trumps Ivanovic both in terms of points total and points over 90 minutes. With evidently better fixtures, you’d expect Baines to replicate that record at least for the next six.

Points per 90 minutes (pp90)

Ivanovic Baines

13/14 159(4.51) 169(5.36)

12/13 142(4.37) 177(4.66)

11/12 80(3.18) 134(4.06)

Terry/Cahill/Kompany/Zabaleta/6.5 → Baines

As you may have rightly noticed, this move requires a little spare cash but if provided the opportunity I’d have no qualms about going forward with this one.

The forward-thinking sacrifice

Welbeck/Pellè + 4.5 Defender→ Steven Naismith + Baines

Imagine you’re the captain of a sinking ship with all of our PF8 guys aboard. You need to lose at least one of them, so who do you sacrifice? Obviously, aside from George Boyd. For me it would have to be Pellè (Welbeck owners read Welbeck) who would be the one walking the plank for me.

The credibility of this move comes down to whether you think the Everton duo would outscore Pellè (Welbeck) and your 4.5 defender.

The midfield dagger to the heart

Fabregas + 4.0 → Chadli + Baines

These are slightly faith-testing times for Fabregas owners. There’s this tangibly growing minority that now sees our ever-assisting sweet-heart as expendable, especially the ones still without the services of one Angel Di Maria. Shedding Fabregas for Nacir Chadli is an altogether much more bitter pill to swallow. Nacer Chadli doesn’t care though. He proudly sits a point above Fabregas in the midfielder rankings and his fixtures from Gameweek 9 onwards suggest this move may have more legs than you are likely to give it credit for.

There’s always Stewart Downing

Downing as the cheap fourth mid

Sometime in November 2010, I was off on a vacation with very limited internet access, I couldn’t come about deciding on a difficult midfield dilemma. I had to choose one of Stewart Downing or Samir Nasri, both 7.0-rated midfielders back then. Downing made his way into my team that night but never after. In that sense this move has a touch of nostalgia about it for those of us who played the game during Downing’s Villa days. This might be the perfect enabler for some, yet an utter no-go for the others. That won’t stop me from mentioning him here, for Stewart Downing in our teams is something which comes about with regularity of the World Cups.

The Last Resort – Go Wild

Undoubtedly many shall be Wildcarding this Gameweek given the international break. That’s one way to get Leighton on board.

4.5 | 4.0

Baines | Bertrand/Clyne | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0

ADM | Fab | Sterling | Siggy | Boyd

Costa | Kun | Welbz

With a transfer value (TV) of 102.7, I am currently 0.9 short of this line-up. Assuming my TV is about average, that’s at least 0.5 too much for most of us bar the astute TV collectors. Though there are compromises available in different flavours for those willing to go down this route. I’ll list some of them and with that end your suffering here.

Chambers instead of Bertrand/Clyne

Pellè instead of Kun

Tadic instead of Sterling (As a frustrated Tadic owner I don’t recommend this at all, just putting it out here as food for thought)