Out of all the summer business for Norwich so far this season, the signing of Josh Sargent has probably been greeted with the greatest scepticism. Sargent’s lack of goals has been brought up regularly among Norwich fans when discussing the American’s track record. Obviously, being at Werder Bremen for the previous two seasons hasn’t been the ideal place for a young striker looking to find his way, finishes of 16th and 17th (in an 18 team league), have meant frayed nerves around the ground and few opportunities for attacking players to show their worth.
For someone only 21 it feels Sargent has been around a longtime. He burst onto the scene in Germany by scoring with his very first touch for Bremen at 18 years on and has always been flagged as someone with great potential, just waiting for it all to click.
Like many teams scrabbling against relegation Werder tried numerous formations and players in different positions to try and make things work — ultimately they never found a proficient system and shuffling players meant lack of fluency all round.
Sargent ended up playing around 500 minutes on the wing (both left and right), 500 minutes as an attacking midfielder behind a striker and 1,500 minutes as a striker, either in a one or two up top. WhoScored have Werder down as using 11 different starting formations in the Bundesliga in 20/21, not the sign of a team with a coherent plan.
This air of desperation hardly makes an ideal place for a young player to develop. Whether jumping from a relegation battle at Bremen to one at Norwich is the best career move for Josh is probably more debatable than if Norwich bringing in a young striker struggling to impose himself is the right move for the club.
What does he do well?
I think it is fair to say a cursory glance at Sargent’s numbers aren’t going to get anyone too excited. 13 goals in 72 games isn’t a goal record that will stand out, although he has been one of the highest scorers at Werder over the past two season, another being Norwich’s first summer signing Milot Rashica. As mentioned there are mitigating factors that for large parts of the 20/21 season Sargent was played in positions outside of the striker role.
Sargent has good physical attributes, he is often clocked with sprints over 30km/h and at 185cm has good stature which he uses effectively, winning a good number of his aerial duels. He is also often credited with being a ‘hard worker’, which is sometimes used as feight praise for players when there isn’t much nice to say about them, but with Sargent it is definitely true — again though this hard work is often out of necessity in a team scraping at the bottom. This tracking back and diligence is displayed in the high number of interceptions and defensive actions he is involved in per game.
Despite the lack of goals, Sargent’s finishing is fine, he tends to score around his xG rate and is very good at getting shots on target. In build up play Sargent’s passing overall wasn’t very accurate in 20/21 at around 76% accuracy, a drop off from 80% in the previous season. He did though make more of an impact with his passing last season and improved in deep completions, key passes and xA. While none of these are at particularly high levels when compared to other strikers, there are some signs that he may be able to offer something in creating chances. The pick up in these numbers will also be due to playing in deeper positions more regularly and thus increasing the opportunities to help set-up team mates.
So what is the problem?
Sargent’s biggest issues is that for a striker, he doesn’t take many shots, only 1.4 per 90 in the Bundesliga last season. While it may feel like an incredibly basic metric, shooting is what strikers need and have to do in their role. Not taking shots is a red flag for other issues. Is the player not making the right moves? Do they have a poor awareness for where defenders are? Are they not confident in pulling the trigger? Whether the lack of shots is team, system or player based will be a large part of whether Sargent can succeed in the long term.
As said above, Sargent is not a poor finisher — SmarterScout ranks him as someone who will be average at a Premier League level in finishing using their league comparison models. He scored 5 goals from an xG of 5.5 last season, which you may want a little higher for a striker, but it is by no means poor. For the USA Sargent shots at a more respectable rate of 2.34 per 90, but much of the opposition the USMNT face is not of the highest quality.
It is also fair to say that Sargent is not the possessor of the highest technical ability, his first touch is often left for wanting and in dribbling he tends to use his speed and physique than deft skill. There may some concerns adapting to Farke’s possession based football, but in Werder’s more possession based 19/20 team Sargent managed a good pass accuracy rate and could hold possession well, without being exceptional. He will need to improve in his awareness and first touch if he is to excel in a Farke team.
Will it work?
Sargent comes into the season with a lot to prove. Often highlighted as a rising star in the USMNT after making his Bundesliga debut at 18 he so far has struggled to live up to the high expectations placed upon him. Coming through as a young player in a battling team is especially difficult and Sargent has definitely suffered a drop in form and confidence in the last year, this has resulted as his relatively secure spot as starting striker for his country being called into question.
Moving to Norwich is a big call for him, a year in the 2. Bundesliga could have seen him in a team that would most likely win far more than they lose and he could have bagged plenty of goals, having already scored twice in the opening two games of the season.
For Norwich, they are getting a player who has been flagged for the top for a longtime and one who is still highly rated by many despite recent struggles. SmarterScout mark him as a ‘hot prospect’, prior his signing only two Norwich players to have that tag (Tzolis also has it), and many will consider his signing a coup. A fee of less than £10m for a striker who already has 70 Bundesliga appearances at 21 years old is not to be taken lightly. There is a striking resemblance between Sargent’s statistics and Joelinton’s, and while the Brazilian hasn’t been seen as living upto his huge transfer fee, he has been a regular Premier League performer for Newcastle and right now, that is what Norwich need.
Norwich need to hope they can unlock that potential and Sargent isn’t destined to be another ‘Plan B’ striker who is caught in Pukki’s shadow and never given the opportunity to flourish. Second choice striker for a team that struggles to score is one of the hardest roles in football; 10, 15, 20 minutes in sporadic games is no way to build up form and momentum. I fear a season of being shuffled around in several positions with minutes here and there off the bench could mean that Norwich fans never get to see the best of Sargent, and the first impressions of a striker who doesn’t score sticks.
However, a few goals like the one below and things will be just fine.
Read profiles of Norwich’s other signings, including Sargent’s former teammate Milot Rashica, below;
