If the person you’re directly facing doesn’t have a clue what you’re going to do next, it gives you a millisecond’s advantage. So much of football is a battle of psychology strikers love to wriggle their way into defenders’ heads and lay little eggs of uncertainty when they get there.
Watch glances full#
Dan Burn has been superb for Newcastle, but brought in from left-back to centre-half at the Amex Stadium, he didn’t know whether to go tight or drop back against Ferguson and in the end did neither.ĭan received very little protection from the midfield in front of him, which was curiously insipid and full of holes, but Ferguson punished Newcastle. That capacity to do different things makes it very difficult for defenders. He’s 6ft 2in (188cm) and happy to be aggressive and physical, to back into whoever is marking him, but he will also mix things up. When I talk about bullying defenders, I mean there’s no fear or reserve to him. Goals were my drug and we share the addiction. I don’t know whether it was his exuberance or confidence, the touch of arrogance, but that little strut, the way he handled himself, was very reminiscent of how I felt at that age.
Watch glances how to#
I’m not sure how to write this next bit without sounding like a wanker… but as I watched Ferguson against Newcastle, I caught myself thinking, ‘Yeah, I recognise that’ or, ‘Hmm, I may have seen some of that before’. He demonstrated it perfectly in Brighton’s opening-day victory over Luton Town, bursting forward from the centre-circle in the 95th minute with the game already dead, straining and stretching to get on the end of Pervis Estupinan’s fantastic cross. Not every player burns with the desire to score whatever the circumstances or cost, but Ferguson has it. Perhaps most of all, I love the purity and ferocity of his hunger how much he craves goals.ĭoes that last point sound too basic? We’re living in an era of agile, versatile, creative forwards. I love his positioning, I love how he’s always asking different questions of the centre-half, either going up against him or, as he did against Newcastle, dropping in short, getting the ball to feet and turning. We’re talking about a very special talent, someone who could be a superstar within a couple of years.
At his age, all manner of things could happen to alter the pathway of his life and career and I’ve never met Evan, so can’t judge his mentality or attitude, but I’ve studied his performances and he has the potential to be massive. I’d never seek to pile pressure onto a young player’s shoulders, but then you watch Ferguson play and can’t help yourself. 🤩 Our Young Player of the Season is Evan Ferguson! ✨ Left foot, right foot, headers, pace, aggression, intuition there is no obvious weakness to his game, which is only going to get better and better. I can’t say I relished his destruction of Newcastle United, my team, the other weekend, except in terms of centre-forward artistry as Ferguson plundered and pestered his way to becoming only the fourth 18-year-old to score a hat-trick in the Premier League era.
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