Originally Posted by
elatedscum
his pace is an interesting point. he's faster than he was a few years ago. will be interesting to see how he looks at 19/20 - right now i think the top speed is pretty good but the first few steps of acceleration aren't as impressive. he can be a little wooden at times, he's tended to get away with it, like he'll take a slightly heavy touch but his feet are quick enough to get the pass away to his teammate before he gets tackled. or he takes a heavy touch but he's strong enough to hold the player off.
His big attributes are his ability to finish well with both feet, his movement, his strength, his reaction speed, his hold up play, his link up play, his self confidence.
- if you look at the side angle for mitoma's goal, his run is perfect, he's always just onside and if mitoma wanted there's an easy pass available to play Ferguson in, he pulls out perfectly at the last second not to crowd the space and to be there for a rebound. you couldn't coach it better.
- for when he hits the post, he takes up an excellent position, reacts to the deflection and finishes first time with his weaker foot.
- for his goal, the run he makes sends coady back and then he drops off. if sarmiento is able to get the ball anywhere past the defender, ferguson is gonna win it, he earns himself a big wide area of space to attack the ball
- for march's goal, he obviously plays it across to march, but the overlapping run is partially what takes Tarkowski out. He points at Ferguson's run to Mykalenko to get him to cover and then slips
he's 18, so he's got so much room to improve if it goes right for him - I remember when he was 16, comparing him to a then 20 year old Erling Braut Haaland if he gained a yard or two of pace, maybe Alan Shearer. you wouldn't want to heap too much pressure on him but that's the best case scenario, an absolute monster. worst case, it's possibly Kevin Doyle, if he overbulks and loses a bit of his mobility and pace as he develops and loses confidence and ends up being a physical hold up man type figure. saying that, probably somewhere in between is the likeliest bet.
watching him in the last week, with his movement, he's not just reacting to mistakes that defenders make, which is something good strikers do, he's actively dictating where defenders go to create space and chances, which is something great strikers do. i saw a press conference where Klopp was talking about Nunez a few weeks ago and he said, the most important thing is he's getting chances. the far bigger concern is when players don't get chances at all. and that's the thing with evan, he's going to get a handful of chances that other strikers wouldn't get just because of his movement.
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