Evan Ferguson is unaffected by the media glare. There is an air of supreme confidence to how he carries himself on and off the pitch.
In August, on arrival at Roma, Gazzetta dello Sport got hold of him, publishing 700 words of Ferguson saying the right things and studiously avoiding controversy.
Of course, Gazzetta turned his answer to a journalist’s query of how many goals he hoped to score, into a “I’m aiming to score 20 goals” headline on its famous pink pages.
From four starts and three runs off the bench for Gian Piero Gasperini’s side, he has yet to score. In the same period, he scored twice for the Republic of Ireland in crucial World Cup qualifiers.
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So far, the eye test supports his decision to leave Brighton, where he is contracted until June 2029, for a season loan to Serie A.
Ferguson plays up front alone, largely with his back to goal, but his physique allows him to muscle Italian defenders off the ball.
“It’s a different way of football over there,” he said before Ireland’s final training session in the midday heat of Lisbon on Friday in advance of Saturday night’s meeting with Portugal. “[Gasperini] is big on attacking and playing through a striker. So it’s just about the work that you’re going to be doing every day and trying to improve.”
On the lack of goals for the Giallorossi, he had no problem talking up his performances.
“I think, if you watch the games, I’ve done quite well in most of them but not had too many chances. It is what it is, you want to score goals, there is no getting around that, but I’m not really too worried to be honest.”
The ankle issue that ruled him out of Roma’s 2-1 victory over Fiorentina last Sunday will not impact his performance against Portugal when he will be monitored by Manchester City’s Rúben Dias.
Fit to start? “Yes.”
That about sums Ferguson up. Given the chance to give a one-word answer, he will take it. Given the chance to shoot first time in Armenia, he scored.
Sitting beside Heimir Hallgrímsson in Estádio José Alvalade on Friday, he dismissed the Ireland manager’s recent comment about the green shirt being “too heavy” for young players.
“I wouldn’t say much about a heavy jersey, I’d say it is a confidence thing maybe, because whoever is here wants to play for their country and wants to play as best they can.
“No one comes here to want to lose games. Every time you’re here you want to win games. So I think it’s just more of a confidence thing and trying to build a run of results and hopefully we have the squad now that can do that.
“We’ve got a mix of some of the players in the past who have gone away to tournaments and we’ve got some young players who can be here for many years.”
When asked to specifically explain what happened in Yerevan last month, Ferguson spoke about a meeting last Tuesday between the Irish players and coaches without expanding on what was said.
“I think a lot of things went wrong, more things went wrong than went right. We keep it in the group what we said and we [went] through the game and analysed it and hopefully we won’t be making the same mistakes again.”
Despite the hole Ireland have created for themselves, Ferguson almost guffawed at the suggestion that qualifying for next summer’s World Cup is beyond them.
“There would be no point in being here if we didn’t believe that [we can qualify]. Every time we’re together we have the belief and whatever anyone else says we have to just put [that] aside and come together as a group and find out what we need to do and how we can get ourselves to America next year.”
A goal a game from Evan Ferguson might be enough.
