Baines relinquished spot-kick duties to keep Lukaku scoring

Haha. Gerrard should have ceded the same to Suarez with spot kicks and pens last season. They couldÂ’ve won the league.

Good on Baines.

Would Davie Unsworth have given up the penalties? No chance. This seems like a press sound bite to me, to put a lid on it. I canÂ’t believe any footballer who was a top penalty taker would happily move aside when a penalty came up.

You have to play to your strengths, whatever they may be. If you are good at pens, take the pens! Andy Hinchcliffe was good at corners so he was put on corners. Simple!

The main thing is getting results for the team, sod a confidence-booster to a player who, has yet, not in one way lived up to the £28mill tag we paid for him.

Okay, I know it wasn't Rom who decided "I'm a £28 mill player ....

Give me strength. Sorry, Leighton, way out of order there lad.

No footballer would ever voluntarily give up the responsibility to take pens. This is a decision from Martinez that has been spun to make it look like LBÂ’s own decision.

Let’s be honest if he keeps scuffing them its just a matter of time before he misses one. The fact that he has scored just one goal from open play since early December is a sad sorry story for a striker we spent £28 million quid on.

People can rant and rave about a lack of service or poor team displays, whatever way you look at it, we totally bust our transfer record for a striker that doesnÂ’t perform well enough in the Premier League.

Also Leighton Baines SHOULD be on the pens again as of now.

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable reason for the switch. But clearly the manÂ’s word on the subject is not enough for some...

Either way, this shows what an asset Baines is to a team and itÂ’s spirit. HeÂ’s the one player we have who has been CL class consistently.

The team should come first, and even though Rom seems confident enough, he has scuffed a couple of them and is not as good as Baines.

For me the manager should have stepped in (if he hasnÂ’t already!) and insisted on Baines taking them.

Players should also not be deciding who takes the pens. ThatÂ’s the managers job.

If what Baines says is true then why were players like Coleman telling him to take the pens?

Maybe this is the truth, I donÂ’t know, but I do know that Baines is a better set piece taker than Lukaku. That goes for free kicks too. Get the specialist back on them!

Baines added: "So it's partly that and, from the club's point of view, he's an asset. "We've paid a lot of money for him, he's a young striker who is going to be judged on his goals, not your left-back.

- I hope that Lukaku doesnÂ’t demand a move in the summer because that would show him up to be less of a person than many think he is, I wonder how his former boss would view this situation.

What will it be next? Tony Hibbert taking one to finally break his duck??

Its become farcical now at Everton where we are just playing around like kids in a playground.

My issue is with the lack of clear direction. Martinez said emphatically after Mirallas missed against WBA that "Leighton Baines is on penalties." Since then he hasnÂ’t taken one.

"Maybe" nothing. Baines stated it, plain and simple. ThatÂ’s that.

Fucking Baines. Doing his best for the Club by encouraging its striker.

Tosser.

Finch Holiday Farm 10 minutes warm up followed by 10 minutes tippy tappy drills then into the classroom to master the art of bullshit press release.

Have to agree with Jim and Harold: Rom is not a good penalty taker, he dithers has no clear mind set to make his decisions. Unless he is practising every day at the holiday camp you just know that sooner or later itÂ’s going to cost us valuable points.

Every day a new and ridiculous debate to behold.

Love ToffeeWeb first thing in the morning.

Why is it so hard to believe that Baines is telling the truth? He is not one of RMÂ’s puppets but instead seems to do what is best for the team if he can.. He disregards RM on the field when pushing the ball up as evidenced by RM screaming at him. He made the odd comments on-air about the team which wouldnÂ’t have sat well with RM.

Love the fact that after RM declared Baines to be the PK taker, he gave one to Barkley, to try to get his confidence up, and the rest to Lukaku, who hasnÂ’t missed. It is Baines stepping up and being a leader in a quiet way and an effective way and a classy way while at the same time thumbing his nose at RM.

Baines seems to always let his actions speak louder than words. I have often thought he would have been the starting England left back a few years earlier if he had been more demonstrative about his qualities and his wish to be the starter.

Baines should be the penalty taker end of.

Taking and scoring penalties will inspire confidence for our centre forward but the converse is also true if he starts missing then his and the teams confidence will quickly disappear.

LetÂ’s wait and see on this one.

Cheers for the aggressive riposte.

IÂ’m not calling Baines a liar. IÂ’m just saying that heÂ’s playing down a farce that has been running for much too long. This all started with Mirallas grabbing the ball to take one which was clearly never agreed upon by anyone other than himself. Lukaku and Barkley then start having a pop and the manager offers a completely incoherent explanation. Basically that we have numerous penalty takers on the pitch and whoever feels like it can step up and take one. ItÂ’s a complete nonsense that we are even having this discussion about a Premier League football club.

Think it was one of those crazy stalled short run-ups if IÂ’m not wrong.

Does he fill me with confidence when he steps up? No. Will he miss with one of the next half a dozen? Yes, probably. But we have to get behind the player no matter what. HeÂ’s our Number 1 striker and should be scoring 20+ goals from open play a season but this season heÂ’ll only manage it with penalties so why canÂ’t it be true that Baines felt it was better for the team that he take them? Rom had a great spell before his injury which included all round goals and only the player himself will know whether that confidence came from seeing his tally go up thanks to a few penalties.

My gripe with all this penalty taking nonsense is Mirallas and Barkley taking them. I donÂ’t think this was an issue at the start of the season as Baines was knocking them in fine but it all changed with Mirallas. Rom was on the pitch at the time and didnÂ’t grab the ball and was in fact telling Mirallas to give it to Baines so at this point Baines was still the No 1. This has all blown up from that.

My guess is that RM needed to put a lid on the whole situation and they decided between them that it would be changed around. I cannot explain the Barkley penalty at all, maybe that was also a confidence issue.

We donÂ’t know what our players train on and do at Finch Farm or what they do or say behind closed doors but what is true is that penalties have been a farce this season so why canÂ’t this be a logical explanation and an end to the whole sorry sage instead of criticising the club yet again?

Apart from that, I’ve got £20 on Rom scoring 20+ goals this season so penalties galore in the next 3 games please.

Anyway, I thought that strikers are meant to be kept hungry not satiated with success. This is all bollocks. Like RMÂ’s team selections.

IMO, Baines is a very quiet lad who never complained when he sat on the bench for ages whilst Lescott played out of position at left back. He is never vocal or confrontational and just gets on with his job efficiently.

I think he should have stayed as first choice penalty taker but I wholeheartedly believe why he passed the duty over to other so-called strikers. I for one do not think he is a liar!

If he could have, he would have lit up a fag before he placed the ball on the spot, took a big drag, had a look up as he blew a couple of smoke rings and then dispatched it to whatever corner of the goal that took his fancy at the time.

Sure heÂ’s had a disappointing season by his standard, but that is only because he has been scoring shitloads of goals since he was 18. IÂ’d just be wary of continuously knocking the one player on EvertonÂ’s roster that raises our entire profile.

However, as Jim B and others astutely pointed out, this does absolutely nothing to explain the embarrassing SuperKev and Barkley incidents. Baines passed over by penalty novices twice at important moments. ThatÂ’s QPR, bush league shameful stuff. For shame!

I don't care how bad they look if they go in.

100% success rate and people are moaning.

The trouble is if he missed the next one we have the usual pantomime about his confidence, which looks pretty shaky at best!

I see his first touch has regressed to what it was.

I remember we were 1-0 down at Elland Road against Leeds, it was a cup tie about 64-65 season. Alex Scott was the designated penalty taker, as I think the great Roy Vernon had been on the injured list.

The Blues were awarded a spot kick, Alex Scott (Chico) took a weak penalty, Gary Sprake saved it but had moved, the referee said take it again. Roy Vernon took the ball from Chico, put it on the spot and buried it past their goalie.

That mirrored Mirallas against West Brom, he couldn't lace Vernon's boots.

Being harsh (but fair) I suppose we could lob in (if the accounts are true):
1. Not really practising taking corners
2. Not really practising receiving corners
3. Defenders on the posts or not only decided upon at the last minute (or not).

We were fighting relegation so we take the ball off one of the best penalty takers in the prem, to give it to someone who had no confidence.

In my view Baines should never have stopped taking the penalties but now that Lukaku is, and has scored 4 out of 4, he should keep taking them until such times as he doesnÂ’t want to, misses a couple, or the manager changes the designated penalty taker.

We had a great team morale under Moyes and now we have a disgruntled squad. Mirallas, Distin both unhappy with their treatment. Lukaku, Coleman, Baines, Howard, Barkley, Besic all had their confidence shattered. Alcaraz, Kone, Barry, Robles, McGeady all signed by Roberto and simply not good enough. Osman, Hibbert, Naismith, Pienaar all well past it.

All the above is making or has made a mockery of our club throughout this campaign so letÂ’s fix the main issue and sack Borat.

I believe that Baines was told to relinquish the penalties to Rom by Martinez as he desperately needs him to increase his goal tally to justify the outlay. If this is the case, then Martinez is not worried about the negative impact that it may have on the scoreline and the confidence of the other players. This is quite scary.

Give the ball to Baines, every time.