Big step up for him, starting and running all day vs. coming in fresh against tired legs and tired minds. Great to see him get the opportunity, but shouldn't be a surprise for anyone that a kid with his (lack of) experience is challenged by playing a good team in a very good league. Question is how much he learns and grows from this experience.
i think yall r being too harsh on Sargents performance. unless he comes back deep in the mid, to get touches, hes doing his job. staying high, and making either the CB or FB commit to defending him. theres not much involvement of the Forwards with the rest of the team. Stuttgart is defending very deep and WB is building up the possession. no much room for Sargent to operate, not much combo passing in the final third.
When your teammates start by-passing you, that's usually a bad sign. Typical fan reaction on the Spieltagsthread in werder.de: "Sargent muss raus. Völlig überfordert" = "Get Sargent out. He's been completely overwhelmed." Bremen fans quite mad at our boy right now.
Deserved sub. That didn't go well. Lacked dynamism and uncharacteristically hesitant with positioning because he lost confidence early. Playing attacking right wing didn't set up the striker for success from the beginning and he let it adversely impact his overall performance.
He was poor, but Sahin is having the worst performance of any CM I have witnessed in a long time, and I watch a good bit of MLS.
Yep, like Haji's, the kind that is going to get you in memes on Twitter. Fortunately, they'll be mostly in German, so we won't be seeing them.
First ever start for a teenager in BL1 against a team bunkering for their lives. I'm happy for him and if he was a little shook by the moment, I totally understand. He was not terrible, but it's all about the experience at this point. He will get more shots.
Disappointing draw for the squad, too, with a spot in Europe a reasonable reach goal for the rest of the season. Just got a little harder.
Haji and Sargent don't move as well as a Novakovich or Weah in the open field pace wise. It's gonna take them a bit longer to reach that next level I think.
It is just amazing that this is where we are with Haji now. The guy was seen as being electric, athletically, 4 years ago as a 16 year old. Now, at the ripe old age of 20, he is, relatively speaking, seen as a bit of a stiff. Again, quite shocking.
Not uncommon for a youth player who matures ahead of his peers. He's nothing special when playing against first division full-grown adult defenders in Germany. Pulisic, on the other hand, shined as a youth player even though he was a shrimp. And now he's grown into his body so he's a baller relatively speaking.
But I am not talking about the "playing" part of the game. I am talking PURELY physically. I mean, DAMN, the guy went from being the fastest guy (or one of the fastest) on every field at the youth level (even when he was one of the younger players) to being a plodder in just a couple years. And that is without any unfortunate injuries or the like. Seriously, how many guys can we name who looked THAT athletic at 17 and that unathletic (relatively) by the time they were 19 or 20? I find it bizarre.
Neither am I talking about the "playing" part of the game. I am speaking to physical maturity, which results in increases in strength and speed. Haji matured early, i.e., he was an early bloomer. As the rest in his age group caught up, it turned out he was nothing special athletically; he just reached his athletic peak sooner than the rest.