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Colin Sheridan: English football, especially at top level, is brutal on forwards

On paper, Evan Ferguson has much of what Raúl Jiménez has: size, strength, a good football brain. What he may lack — for now — is the maturity, or perhaps the humility, to subordinate his own instincts for the sake of the team.

Mon, 02 Feb, 2026 - 06:42

Colin Sheridan

Colin Sheridan is a writer and columnist. A former officer in the Irish Defence Forces he has extensive deployment experience as a peacekeeper with the United Nations, having lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia, West Africa, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.

BEFORE Fulham kicked a ball at Manchester United on Sunday, their Mexican forward Raúl Jiménez had played all but one of their 23 league games this season and scored a rather modest five goals. That’s about 0.22 goals per game, or one goal every four-and-a-half matches.

In his best ever Premier League season, with Wolves in 2020, he played every game and scored 17 times. In the six seasons since, he has reached double figures just once. For Mexico, meanwhile, Jiménez has earned 123 caps and scored a very respectable 44 goals.

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