Michael Ephson is a 21-year-old striker who plays for Hearts of Lions in the Ghana Premier League. He has been called up by Ghana at U-20 level but did not play. Despite a goal-scoring record that doesn’t leap off the page, I think Ephson could take a decent step up.
Ephson is around 6’0″ (1.82 m) with a lean, muscular build. His main selling point is his duel-winning ability. Ephson is a fantastic link-up striker at the Ghanaian Premier League thanks to his ability to hold the ball up and win flick ons. Ephson’s hold-up play allows him to create a decent number of chances for teammates. He is not necessarily the most technical passer even, but he consistently creates space by knocking opponents around, which frees him up to play simple passes into danger zones. He does get called for a lot of fouls due to his physical style of play. Ephson is also quite good at receiving the ball in pockets of space at the edge of the box. Quite a lot of his shots are from that sort of range, though he is a decent ball striker. This brings us to the issue of Ephson’s not particularly impressive strike rate. I see two factors at play. Firstly, the GPL is extremely low-scoring in general. At the time of writing, there are only three teams in the eighteen team league averaging more than 1 goal per game. But Ephson also needs to do a better job of getting into the high danger zones. He spends a lot of time dropping deep or drifting out wide to link play. But once he makes those plays he needs to get into the box. He is quite good in the air, which should make him a dangerous target man in the box. Ephson’s first touch sometimes lets him down, though I wouldn’t say it stands out as particularly bad at his current level either. He is not much of a dribbler; the main way he creates space is through winning physical battles.
Ephson’s defensive play and pressing are very strong. He works hard to close players down and does so effectively. He frequently wins the ball back high up the pitch. His physical prowess is also a big help in winning the ball cleanly.
Ephson has really strong hold-up play, a great physical profile, and I think he would have the ability to score more reliably in a team that created more chances for him. I could see him doing very well in a smaller European league or in Southeast Asia. From there, I could see him going to a mid-tier European league and doing reasonably well.
Target Scouting 