Eligibility is neither here nor there. The reason he should play in March is that he's a striker playing and scoring in one of the big European leagues.
It's a fair while since we've had that at this stage.
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Eligibility is neither here nor there. The reason he should play in March is that he's a striker playing and scoring in one of the big European leagues.
It's a fair while since we've had that at this stage.
“Crikey”..???….. You’re one of “them” aren’t you. A mole on the inside!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Check for connections to the Southern-Gate to England !Quote:
Originally Posted by dr_peepee
In fairness, he's scored 2 league goals for Brighton. Connolly did that in one game against Spurs. Callum Robinson the same against Chelsea.Quote:
Originally Posted by backstothewall
I wonder at what point he'll be the highest scoring premier league player of our squad:
- Coleman 21
- Hendrick 12
- Doherty 11
- McClean 11
- Brady 10
- Duffy 7
- Robinson 6
- Connolly 5
- Obafemi 4
- Hourihane 4
If Shane Long was considered to be still a squad member, I think he'd be on 56. Doherty could maybe reach 20. Beyond that, it's Ferguson, or at a stretch, Obafemi signs for Burnley, hits the ground running, does really well, they get promoted and he goes into next season as a goal scoring premier league striker...
I thought Connolly had a great chance to kick on and be a top Premiership player after those 2 goals against Spurs. It wasnt just the goals, he was playing very well at the time too and it should always serve a lesson for young players to not think they have "made it" after a couple of games.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
Ferguson feels different to me than most of our hyped up young players of recent years. This feels like natural progression for a guy who has been destined to be a top class player since he was a kid of 14 coming on against Chelsea. Hes a bit like Bazunu, who also played LOI very young, in that once he got a taste of 1st team football you expect him to continue to improve. Id put Nathan Collins in that bracket too.
His performance against Liverpool at the weekend wont get the coverage of the previous games because he didnt score, but I thought he was brilliant. He was involved all the time. I think Stutts said in a previous post that the ball seems to be drawn to him in the box unlike other strikers in our squad, and it happens because of his cleverness of movement. He made some excellent runs the other night that made space for the likes of Mitoma to attack. His touch and hold up play were evident too. He just seemed to at the heart of everything good for Brighton and by the time he came off after an hour you could see that he was knackered.
To answer the question above, he could been our top Prem scorer by the time hes 20 if he continues his current progress.
Cor blimey guvnor, I've been rough and tumbled.Quote:
Originally Posted by dr_peepee
Dropped for Welbeck but I wouldn't worry too much. Still early days in his career and he'll get plenty of gametime.
Scores again -- his third PL goal.Quote:
Originally Posted by BOOMSHAKALAKA
He’s come on and done it again!
Great header too. Delighted for him!
Beautiful header into the corner he was running from, in off the post. Incredible finish.
Just seen it now. Absolutely brilliant finish. A long way out and not a heap of pace on the cross. Pure quality.
Already halfway to matching the total Premier League goals scored by Connolly, Idah and Parrott combined.
It's early days yet, but there's a feel of Robbie Keane off this guy that I just haven't gotten with any of our other options
Three goals and two assists in around 200 mins of PL football.
Really nice finish with a glancing header. Expected to rotate with Welbeck for rest of season so wouldn’t worry about it. Will help divert some of the pressure
Ian Wright is a fan of the kid:
“I watched him against Everton, he scored against Arsenal,” said the BBC pundit, in a brilliant interview on an episode of Second Captains. “What happens when you see a striker like that, it does make you think ‘yes… old-school centre-forward,’ but what I liked about him is that he’s aggressive.
“Against Everton, he was having it with [James] Tarkowski and with [Conor] Coady and I liked that straight off the bat. He smashed someone off the ball, he linked the play really well, he made a great move for his goal and the other goal.”
“I hope that he gets to play regularly and Brighton start playing to his strengths and get him involved more,” he adds. “I’d get the ball into him as soon as possible through those lines, because he links the play very well, he’s got very intelligent movement in that last third, and he wants to get into the box.
“That’s what I would do. You look at him – he’s good in the air, he’s good on the floor, he make good movement in the box, so he’s somebody who has got all the attributes.
“Now how can we get it to him quicker? I’m not saying Brighton have to launch it but they’ve got another option now if he’s playing.
“They could play it through like we saw them do to Liverpool the other day, cut them to pieces, or they can go direct, get it into him, he can link play, people can go beyond him.
“They could do so many things with a striker who has got the capabilities that he’s got. He’s got everything. He’s got the size, he’s got the touch, he’s got the shooting power, he’s got the movement in the box.”
Let's not get carried away but this is unbelievable stuff. It's hard not to get excited. It looks like we have a goalscorer! Don't know much about him but he doesn't seem the party boy type. Hardworking and has his feet on the ground. Let's not say our new Robbie Keane just yet but some start for a player his age.
Probably a good thing that he's a completely different kind of player to Keane so that will hopefully minimise the comparisons. I can see Ferguson potentially having a more successful club career than Keane to be honest. But less successful at international level as Keane set that bar so high that it's near impossible to follow.
Because no giddity is allowed...to the tune of no diggity:
"We like the way he works it
Ev Fer - gu - son
Hes gonna bag one up!"
https://youtu.be/3KL9mRus19o
That's funny. Especially when the panel all reckoned that Welbeck should start. I don't mind either way - the lad doesn't need to start every week. Definitely not when he can come on with that inpact. He could be De Zerbi's preferred option but that doesn't mean he will or should start him all the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
Love Clinton Morrison in the background when Jeff Stelling is saying what a find Ferguson is and Morrison is like "Irishhhhh."
If he had the impact of Robbie Keane in terms of goals I wouldn't complain but another reason it is good that he is different to Keane is that he probably is more suited to today's game where side play with one central striker more than Robbie was. That isn't to say he's better - I'm just saying he is gold in today's game. Liverpool shifting Robbie out to the wing when Gerrard played behind Torres was probably an early manifestation of 4-2-3-1 and impacted his time there severely as we know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
Yes, Robbie generally needed to be played in a front two and most teams were switching to a lone striker by the second half of his career. I think that played a large part in him ending up in Scotland and Los Angeles in his later days, he didn't fit the prototype Premier League striker anymore. He was maybe a bit unlucky with the timing as variations of front twos have come back into fashion a bit in recent years, including with ourselves.
Incidentally, also on Keane, I was off work for a few days this week with sick kids and I ended up looking through some of the old threads on here. The early pages of the Robbie Keane thread were unbelievable, the abuse he was getting from posters was ridiculous (I should say mostly by people who don't post here any more). This would have been around 2004-2005 so after he had already starred for us at a World Cup. I had to stop reading it after a couple of pages, it was so far removed from reality.
There really was a clear sense of entitlement with the support base back then that doesn't read at all well looking back on it. If we are to turn a corner in the next few years with the likes of Ferguson, Collins and others coming through I hope we don't see a return of that attitude - though the fair weather bandwagon support that drifted away would be back in force no doubt.
The let's not get carried away stuff is starting to get on my nerves a bit.... if you can't get carried away with how this kid is playing do you even get any enjoyment out of football
im afraid to say its time to get carried away!!!
Where's the marking. So much space , good powerful header though. He had to go across from distance.
Another way of looking at it is he finds the spot , the place to be. How often have Ireland hit crosses in like that and we've all gone "who's in there?!" Or " who was that to?!" Especially in the area where he connected with it.
The marking is what you got from that? Really?Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
I think that’s the key. He’s sort of in no man’s land. I think most other players try to make a looping run back in towards the penalty spot, but he makes himself an option by spotting the space in front of him. It’s not the conventional run but it’s a really intelligent one and it gets rewarded.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
In fairness, he's also called out how Ferguson has a knack for finding a good spot, which looks fairly similar to poor marking if done well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Fair enough, I may have jumped the gun.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
The other point is true though, he always looks dangerous. Stutts made the comparison to Idah who never seems to be in right place
If it was raining soup, that lad would be outside with a fork.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Here is the goal btw.
It's fair to criticise the marking, but Ferguson is the one who anticipates where the cross is coming and goes to attack the space. He deserves credit for that. And brilliant placement of the header too.
Ya it found interesting that the two CBs are looking elsewhere and then at eachother like no one knew where's he come from or who should have picked him up to be fair it didn't look like either faes or armatey should be but the tracking midfielder. It's a very clever run alright. Ireland have been lacking that for a long time now even Robbie would often go back post or front post when it's clear he should have done something different. Ferguson seems to know where to be and that is interesting from an Irish perspective
2:20 for anyone who hasn't yet seen it. https://www.skysports.com/ipad/liveA...#liveblog-body
Arriving at the right place right time is a sort of innate attribute. Maybe you can coach it but as a player on the pitch it's mainly all about instinct in those areas. I knew it as a forward player who never seemed to be 'there' when I should have been. Ball watching or flat footed. Ferguson looks like a goalscorer who seems to be 'there' when it's needed. High hopes, high hopes.
Agree - it wasn’t about being marked and either way it wasn’t on the CBs at all. They were more or less where they should have been (maybe a touch deeper) in terms of positioning. It was more about how the little fella could have tracked him better but Ferguson really just made a sensational late run from deep around the back of him and the finish was top quality.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Watching the goal again a few times; the run and finish were both top class. Could watch it over and over.
MOTD made a big thing about one of the Leicester centre backs (not Faes, the other one) being too deep and that was what opened the gap. That's probably true to a point, but that gap was small, it was there for no more than a second and he found it just at the moment the ball came across. And followed it up with an absolute pinpoint header in off the far post.
As someone else said, I'm not sure you can coach all of that. At least some of it is just pure natural talent.
I think those calling for calm heads and not to get carried away are basing it on experience of players bursting on the scene and then falling away but looking at the goal, it's not just his run and finish that's impressive, it's also what he does after he scores.
He doesn't run to the corner flag going ballistic after getting an equaliser. This fella is no show pony. You wouldn't have blamed a young fella going to claim the adulation but Ferguson wasn't having it. He ran in, grabbed the ball and told the other 2 who wanted to celebrate to get the **** out of his way, it was time to focus on getting a winner.
One thing I'll say about this group of emerging Irish players is that a lot of them seem to have an exceptional attitude relative to their ages to the extent that it gets referenced in nearly article or interview you would see about them. In particular Bazunu, Kelleher, O'Shea, Collins, Omobamidele, Knight and Ferguson stand out for this.
id put parrott in that category now aswell. big wake up call at the end of 2021, can see that in all his interviews sinceQuote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
It mostly seems to be people anticipating it rather than anyone actually saying it, but generally I'd make the distinction between being excited by this guy's obvious potential and the kind of post that more or less assumes that every talented teenager is going to be a world-beater by 25. Ferguson's already done more than any of the talented young strikers of recent years though: of course we're all excited and hopeful.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
It continued throughout his career. If he didn't score in a game, there were calls to drop him (for whom, it was rarely clear). We were spoiled with him, and a lot of people hadn't a clue.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
I had a little rummage through that thread myself and found this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by John83