Josh Sargent becoming “complete striker” after adding goals to his game
USA international Josh Sargent is enjoying the best goalscoring spell of his Bundesliga career and, having scored three times in his last four matches, the Werder Bremen striker looks ready to come good on his undoubted potential.
Sargent’s endeavour has never been questioned, and the 21-year-old tops the club’s lists for most sprints (619) and most challenges won (261).
Elsewhere, only Maximilian Eggestein (182.3 miles) and Theodor Gebre Selassie (169.8 miles) have covered more ground than Sargent (149.8 miles) for Die Grün-Weißen in the league, having both played one more game than the American.
But, even more importantly, no Werder player has scored more top-flight goals in 2020/21 than Sargent, who now has five to his name after his recent red-hot run.
It was one area of his game that Sargent had received criticism, having scored only eight times in 58 Bundesliga appearances before hitting three in his last four.
Watch: Josh Sargent, coming of age
Sargent’s trio of successive strikes came in a 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, a 1-1 draw with Cologne and 2-0 victory at Arminia Bielefeld before his streak came to an end in defeat to league leaders Bayern Munich.
Crucially, those goals led to Werder collecting seven immensely important points, with Bremen now nine clear of the bottom three as a result.
By adding a cutting edge to his game, Sargent suddenly looks as potent as he is industrious and the Missouri man’s recent improvement in front of goal hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“It gives me a lot of joy,” former Werder striker Claudio Pizarro told tz of his old teammate’s goalscoring exploits.
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“In addition to his enthusiasm, the boy also has great skills. Werder are a defensively oriented team, where the strikers also have to help out at the back. The fact that Josh is still able to score so many goals shows what potential he has.”
Sargent’s efforts against Bielefeld were hailed as “brilliant” by Werder coach Florian Kohfeldt, who went as far to say that the young American will go on to become “one of the best strikers in the league.”
“He always fights for every ball and has good combination play, but he was not always scoring a lot,” said Kohfeldt following the rearranged victory. “Now he has started scoring, so he will be a complete striker in the future.”
The player himself has also taken encouragement from finding the back of the net more regularly, with his tally now seven in all competitions this term - more than his combined total of six strikes over the course of the previous two campaigns.
Watch: Sargent: "I'm glad my hard work is paying off!"
He said after the Bayern defeat, his first blank in four matches: “I’m very happy that things are starting to come together for me. I’ve been working very hard and I’m glad that I’ve scored a few goals and that it’s starting to pay off a little bit.”
It certainly is and with his output on the rise, Kohfeldt believes his young American forward can eventually go on to become a 15+ goals a season player.
For now, Sargent has nine more games to go in 2020/21, and he should be confident of reaching double figures for the first time in his career should his surge in form continue between now and Matchday 34.
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