[Albion] Evan Ferguson: The making of Brighton forward who could develop into a £100m player

[Bakero]

always a sign of a good player to have a ‘trademark’ finish. with henry, it was the ability to be 1v1 with the keeper, open his body up and pass it into the far corner, with shearer, it was the sheer shot power, from any angle. with mbappe we seem him cut inside and then drag the ball back into the near post, catching the keeper off guard.
I
think evan is developing his own ‘trademark’ finish too. the way he can pick the ball up on the edge of the box, work himself half a yard of space, and place it into the far corner with minimal backlift and several defenders in front of him is a sight to behold. we will see him do that many, many times throughout his career

The great thing is he can do it with both feet. What's even better is there are many more strings to his bow in terms of finishing. Aside from the strokes into the corner, we've had headers, flicks, smashes, tap-ins... He's got it all in his locker.

 

[GT49er]

Ferguson isn’t likely to skip over a defender’s thigh on the half way line and zoom off to score, nor was Ward ever going to bully a centre back.
Different Gravy.

Different styles, yes - but the question was, who is the better finisher?

Early days for Ferguson, of course - will he be as good as it looks he might be, consistantly? We have to wait and see. On Ferguson's side of the 'who's best' argument is the fact that most of Wardy's goals for us were in the second and third division, which makes a difference.

Mind you, they were still bloody good goals!

 

[The Optimist]

Different styles, yes - but the question was, who is the better finisher?

Early days for Ferguson, of course - will he be as good as it looks he might be, consistantly? We have to wait and see. On Ferguson's side of the 'who's best' argument is the fact that most of Wardy's goals for us were in the second and third division, which makes a difference.

Mind you, they were still bloody good goals!

And Ferguson is 19! Ward was playing non-league at 19.

 

[GT49er]

And Ferguson is 19! Ward was playing non-league at 19.

Yes indeed - early days.

 

[Bakero]

The great thing is he can do it with both feet. What's even better is there are many more strings to his bow in terms of finishing. Aside from the strokes into the corner, we've had headers, flicks, smashes, tap-ins... He's got it all in his locker.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Great video but it also highlights how much we’re missing Estupinan.

 

[BevBHA]

According to David Ornstein, he’s on Arsenals list this summer along with a certain Victor Gykores.

Thoughts?

My opinion, anything north of £70/£80 million and it would be a massive risk to keep him

 

[Oh_aye]

According to David Ornstein, he’s on Arsenals list this summer along with a certain Victor Gykores.

Thoughts?

My opinion, anything north of £70/£80 million and it would be a massive risk to keep him

Hes absolutely miles away from it at the moment. Second album syndrome I expect and from all the talk last season about how confident he is for a youngster he presents as quite anxious and shy to me, and I wonder if he's got a bit overwhelmed by the attention. I also wonder if he's either carrying an injury or suffering from some growing pains as we're very careful with him and he rarely has a run of games. He could be a Harry Kane at 22/23 but needs to stay at our level until then. If someone offers crazy money for him then we'd have to cash in and move on but I'm not sure he'd work out at a big club at the moment and much more likely to fall by the wayside.

 

[Commander]

Hes absolutely miles away from it at the moment. Second album syndrome I expect and from all the talk last season about how confident he is for a youngster he presents as quite anxious and shy to me, and I wonder if he's got a bit overwhelmed by the attention. I also wonder if he's either carrying an injury or suffering from some growing pains as we're very careful with him and he rarely has a run of games. He could be a Harry Kane at 22/23 but needs to stay at our level until then. If someone offers crazy money for him then we'd have to cash in and move on but I'm not sure he'd work out at a big club at the moment and much more likely to fall by the wayside.

Agreed. But strikers are different sometimes. He's been struggling with the lack of service with no Mitoma / Andingra. If he was playing up front for Arsenal that wouldn't be an issue. I would wager he would have scored more goals for them this year than he has for us.

 

[Oh_aye]

Agreed. But strikers are different sometimes. He's been struggling with the lack of service with no Mitoma / Andingra. If he was playing up front for Arsenal that wouldn't be an issue. I would wager he would have scored more goals for them this year than he has for us.

Hmm. Maybe. That seems to be one of the messages around him. Just doesn't look to be involved in matches to me, and his body language is a bit sunken in. His hold up play is also absolutely miles off the likes of Wellbeck and Pedro. Non of those things quite relate to chances being created and we have found ways of creating chances for other players who have scored. Despite his size he has been more a deadly penalty box finisher than someone who gets on the ends of crosses and finishes off quick breaks, and the amount of times we are titting around with it in the box waiting for someone to ram it home, he just never seems to be around in those moments.

You may well be right, it just doesn't quite ring true from my observations of him.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

According to David Ornstein, he’s on Arsenals list this summer along with a certain Victor Gykores.

Thoughts?

My opinion, anything north of £70/£80 million and it would be a massive risk to keep him

If we're offered anything around £70/£80m we would have to take it - I'd drive him there myself etc.

I'd be very happy if selling Ferguson for big money meant we could keep Mitoma and everyone else.

 

[Dibdab]

I'd snatch their hands off for anything north of £70m. He looks like he's going to need time that we really cant afford to give him based on the last 3 months performances. He's adding almost nothing to us at the moment.

 

[Hiheidi]

The Athletic did an article on him this week, and why this season has been a bit more difficult for him.

It also says there's 'thought within Ferguson’s camp that the irregular pattern of match minutes has deprived him of rhythm'.

Evan Ferguson is suffering from a Brighton goal drought – but it’s not all his fault

Evan Ferguson has not scored in his last 16 appearances for Brighton — he has one goal since signing a new six-year contract

theathletic.com

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Tough decision. No doubt he's one of the best young strikers in the world, but the last three months would have many worried.

If we get offered £70m, realistically we may have to take it.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

The Athletic did an article on him this week, and why this season has been a bit more difficult for him.

It also says there's 'thought within Ferguson’s camp that the irregular pattern of match minutes has deprived him of rhythm'.

Evan Ferguson is suffering from a Brighton goal drought – but it’s not all his fault

Evan Ferguson has not scored in his last 16 appearances for Brighton — he has one goal since signing a new six-year contract

theathletic.com

An aging Danny Welbeck has been miles ahead of him. This really says a lot about his current performances.

 

[brighton_tom]

Difficult to really judge a strikers form over the last few months given during that period we’ve been playing without his usual sources of assists. Yes people have stepped in, but even Harry Kane would have a drop in form if you replaced Mitoma, March, Fati, Adingra, & Enciso for Buonanotte, Milner, Lamptey. Gross has always been there creating chances but, swapping out the others is a big change.

 

[peterward]

According to David Ornstein, he’s on Arsenals list this summer along with a certain Victor Gykores.

Thoughts?

My opinion, anything north of £70/£80 million and it would be a massive risk to keep him

I don't think the way he's playing currently Arsenal will offer 70/80m

Maybe they realise potential but believe they can get a cut price deal with loss of form and a bit of agent pressure to destabilise Evan (see Caicedo/Trossard)

Gykores has a 100m euro release. So unless Sporting budge they won't pay that and he's not proven at this level.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Semi-unrelated, but why do we struggle to develop that elusive forward from the youth team. When was the last one we brought through to the first team? We all got excited for Connolly, let's hope Ferguson doesn't go the same way.

 

[brighton_tom]

Semi-unrelated, but why do we struggle to develop that elusive forward from the youth team. When was the last one we brought through to the first team? We all got excited for Connolly, let's hope Ferguson doesn't go the same way.

Same for most. Barely any Prem teams have a starting striker they’ve developed from youth team, and is scoring a decent amount of goals.

 

[Commander]

Semi-unrelated, but why do we struggle to develop that elusive forward from the youth team. When was the last one we brought through to the first team? We all got excited for Connolly, let's hope Ferguson doesn't go the same way.

Because it's the hardest position to play, and they are the hardest ones to find. How many football fans claim their team is 'just a 20-goal a season striker short of being a great side'? 99% of football clubs on the planet are! Decent strikers are such an incredibly rare breed.