A look at the impressive tactical strengths to Ferguson’s game | gcooney93
Gavin Cooney JAMIE CARRAGHER DEDICATED a chunk of a recent edition of Monday Night Football to a dissection of Brighton’s playing style under Roberto de Zerbi.
“With my staff we are working to improve him, to become not only a number nine, but to understand the play, to receive the ball or to attack the space — to complete the player. His quality is to score goals. But in the Premier League, and at the level he can reach, it’s not enough to score goals. You have to play like a midfielder when you are far from goal and like a striker in the last 20 metres. We need Ferguson — and [Danny] Welbeck — to work like a No. 10, not only a number nine.
That Ferguson is already this tactically accomplished at 18 is impressive, and a compliment to both his intelligence and his club’s coaching. “Other teams haven’t worked it out at all, it’s a genuinely new way of playing and it makes it so simple for Evan, he knows what he’s got to do: get to the right or left side of the six [opposition's holding midfielder]. He gets it in space, lays it off and gets himself in the box; or he finds himself in midfield turning with an acre of space because the centre halves have dropped off because of Mitoma and March are running a mile in behind.
What greatly helps add that penetration is a striker who can hold the ball up and bring others into play. One of the better stats to measure a team’s penetration is titled – no sniggering down the back, please – ‘Deep Completions’, defined as a pass that is completed within 20 metres of the opponent’s goal.
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