LEIGHTON Baines will continue to test himself against the best full-backs in the premier league as he looks to become king of the stats.

The Everton defender is determined to continually push himself, despite currently having no real competition in the squad for his position.

Baines, 25, regularly compares his performance statistics; such as assists, pass completion rate, and tackling, with top-four stars like Ashley Cole and Patrice Evra.

And the England star insists he will not rest on his laurels after another strong season for the Blues, but wants to over-take the best which the top four has to offer in his position.

As he prepares to play in Everton's final Australian friendly against Brisbane Roar tonight, he said: “For me it’s improving on everything I did last year.

"There may not be an obvious other left back but I know everything I did last year in terms of assists, crosses, the distances I covered and all my pass percentage completion rates.

“We have all the information available to us and I take it onboard and look to beat it. I look at all the left backs in the country and their averages too. I am looking at the top four left backs – where they’re at and where I’m at.

“The manager and Steve Round are always looking to push me on. Last year I think I missed one league game, and this year I’m looking to miss none.

“It’s just about setting targets and being a bit ambitious with it, without being unrealistic. When I get back me and the coaches will have a meeting and set some targets.

“I want to get more assists than last year. I raised my own bench-mark but I’m not sitting back.”

Meanwhile, Baines is confident he will be playing in the strongest defensive back four of his career next season.

He said: “We were missing Jags a lot last season, and obviously it was Sylvain’s first year here and he was learning about the players and how we do things.

“This year we have had that year’s experience and we are all together. We’ve started with a couple of clean sheets and that’s hopefully an indication of how we want to go.

“The year before last we were very strong at the back, then we lost Joleon Lescott and Jags to injury, so there was a lot of disruption.

“Now we’ve got pace and power again with strength in depth. Joseph Yobo is a strong player and he’s not even here in Australia, and we’ve got Seamus who will play a bigger part this season.

“He looks ready and needs the playing time now. The next part of his development is gathering experience and his loan period has obviously done him well.

“He’s enthusiastic and is willing to put a decent shift in and that’s very important. It’s part and parcel for full-backs playing for the very top sides, which we believe Everton are.”