Thiago Motta never wants to see his team get too comfortable. In an interview with Corriere dello Sport earlier this year, Lewis Ferguson explained how the Bologna manager only lets his players know the starting XI on the morning of each game, often subverting expectations they might have had from training. “It keeps you concentrated,” said Ferguson. “If you stop working hard, you won’t play.”
Every time the team sheet has gone up this season, the Scotland international’s name has been on it. Ferguson has played 987 minutes out of a possible 990 in Serie A, more than any other Bologna player besides the goalkeeper, Lukasz Skorupski. Signed from Aberdeen last year for a reported fee of €2m, Ferguson has become a consistently decisive performer in a side with European ambitions.
