Sarge on the bench today, despite being the team’s leading scorer (I’ve been waiting a while to be able to type that).
Imagine watching Bremen without a vested interest in one player? You'd have to pay me 3 figures, at least, to watch today. I wonder if this is more of rest/recuperation for him, and more of a "throwaway" game for Werder. They are getting dangerously close to relegation (only 4 points from the playoff spot), so they are going to need at least another big result or two, most likely. Might just not want to waste him today.
A striker in decent form in the scoring department at least finishes one of those two. He was wide open on the edge of the box for a clear look without any defender in front on the one. The other was a wide open volley in the center of the box where it looked like indecision on whether to shoot straight away or settle. Led to an unfocused shank. It may take leaving a lower-mid table team for an upper-mid table one to regain his confidence permanently. But the catch-22 is that may require a well-timed good run to end the season at Werder. Would like to see him finish with 8 league goals. That would mean he scores 3 in his last 6 matches. Can he do it?
No-one is going to spend money on this guy. Good finishers don’t lose confidence. Dempsey scored a bunch of goals on poor teams.
Well, Josh has 11 goals in 3 seasons. If he wants to get to 80 by the time he's shot down, he's gotta pick up the pace.
I'm a Sargent honk, but I'm not gonna shine that ----. He had two great chances, totally flubbed the first (which was a difficult one to bring down, unless you're Bergkamp or Mathis ), and the second had the scent of, "Oh God, I can't ---- this one up as badly as the last one, just put it on frame," instead of just approaching it with a lethal finishing edge and trusting that putting it on frame is automatic, but putting it where the goalie isn't, on frame, is your objective. Bummed, but it's one game, not the end of the world, not a great day for our forward, but all in all, if I could pick what I wanted most and could have only one thing, having Reyna get his confidence back with yet another quality game (seems like he's got his mojo back since a solid pair of performances in our international window last month). Have no doubts about Reyna long term, but would prefer the season to not be a hot first month or so followed by eight or nine straight months of uninterrupted misery. At this point he's been playing pretty well for about a month straight which is the first time that's happened since Halloween, so I'll just take that. I'm sure Sargent and Dike can bounce back next week, but again, not gonna pretend he played well, he did not, I guess I can take solace in the fact that he got himself wide open for two chances almost immediately, but the horribly flubbed opportunities kind of wipe that happy face clear off.
No. I think he has another goal or two in him, especially if he gets the minutes, but 3 in 6 is something he's pretty much never done other than maybe that brief blip a month or two ago (how many did he get then?). I suspect he'll finish with 6 or 7 (I hope, I fear he stays stuck on 6, today was not good).
Diego Forlan and numerous others say hi. You're talking about guys like Haaland, Messi, and Ronaldo types, most forwards and scorers go through dry spells, and if they go on too long, it does effect the mentality. You see this kind of thing in all sports in different ways, from dropsy in football, to short arming throws in baseball, yips in hockey, hitting the post curse in hockey, front rim shots in basketball, PK taking craziness (see how Asamoah went from a stud to a nightmare after he blew the PK in the Quarterfinals a decade ago in South Africa). In soccer and hockey, the longer this goes on, the smaller the goal mouth looks, the bigger the keeper looks, it's a part of how the brain works, and is even more problematic because it's human nature to aim towards a person rather than away from them when doing anything, so to score goals to begin with, you have to break an instinct. There's a lot of brain in this, mixed with instinct, and repetition and a million other things. We aren't robots.
That was easy to bring down. If he wanted to hit it first time it should've been with his instep, not side foot. If he wanted to bring it down, then with his side foot. Seemed he was indecisive and it resulted in a side foot shank.
I cant be the only one who liked his game today... he had some of the best 1v1 dribbling I've seen from him. I know he can finish so that'll come sooner or later.
how long are people going to say this? im not blowing todays match out of proportion- he just blew two really good chances, it happens. but thats inane. people really have to start adding "at the youth international level" or something, cause that is posted over and over and its simply not true.
He has produced high difficulty goals at every level. It's not like he lacks the technique or skill. Is werner a shitty finisher because he lost his confidence? No
He scores a few high difficulty goals every season but he misses many more low and medium difficulty goals.
try again when sarge hits double digit goals...which will give him a third of what werner has shown he can score. sarge has scored he can score @6.
in an interesting coincidence that was exactly how many goals werner scored in his last season at stuttgart
Looks like it's put up or shut up time for Sargent and Bremen today with a huge match against Mainz. Despite what I've always thought was a decent season for both player/club, they have been awful recently and are getting very close to relegation. Only 4 points from both relegation/relegation playoff spot. That said, there are 7 teams within 7 points of each other, so a win today actually put em in 11th. A loss today is catastrophic, a win probably puts them in the clear. I'm assuming Sargent was rested last weekend, and will be starting today. A goal/good performance today is pretty important in what is one of the biggest games of the year.
Sargent with a 4.0 Kicker rating against Dortmund. Just a smidge below average. I thought he looked good overall. A couple key passes and good possession in midfield. The shots off target were painful
Well, that game against Mainz went over like a lead balloon. Sarge had some really good plays one v one, distributing for key passes. But he just isn’t up to the level to carry this Bremen team, and I’m not saying he should. He and his team lack cohesion and purpose on the ball. Really bad loss today against Mainz. Game announcers said this is the 6th BL1 loss in a row for Bremen and that is a club record. Amazing That Kohfeldt will likely be around next season as they go into another unnecessary relegation battle.
Sargent had a good game v. Mainz. He seems to be improving with every game and will have lots of interest from other BL teams who could use a guy who can play BL soccer.
So Josh now is a midfielder with OK finishing ability? 5 goals are good for a midfielder. How many chances he created for his teammates?
Seems pretty clear to me that Dike is the future if he keeps doing what he is doing. Of course he has to continue that at a clip against high levels. He is so Lakaku like. Sargent could still be servicable as a sub in the 75th after Dike is tired in World Cup play or vice versa.. Though way too early for either one to tell. Josh is on a bad team. that much is for sure. Put him somewhere good before we pass judgement.