Norwich City got back to winning ways on Tuesday at Carrow Road with American forward Josh Sargent celebrating his 11th goal of the English Football League Championship campaign.
Sargent capped off a 3-1 home victory over Hull City by scoring his second goal of 2023 and his first since Jan. 21st. The result helped the Canaries rebound from back-to-back losses to Burnley and Bristol City respectively, moving them into eighth place.
David Wagner’s side fell down early but tied things up in the first half before flipping momentum on their side in the second half. Kieran Dowell’s 18th minute equalizer cancelled out Jacob Greaves’ opener for the Tigers.
Gabriel Sara’s left-footed strike in the 58th minute propelled the hosts in front before the Brazilian set up Sargent for the final blow. Sargent’s right-footed shot landed into the bottom-left corner, sealing a huge three points for the Canaries at home.
Sargent registered three shots on goal in the match, while also winning three of eight duels, and making four recoveries. The 22-year-old now has 29 league appearances for Norwich City this season, and remains as the club’s top goalscorer with 11 tallies.
Norwich City sits just two points outside of the promotion playoff places ahead of Saturday’s trip to Wigan Athletic. The Canaries will also face Birmingham City and Cardiff City to close out February’s busy schedule.
Still questions that any of the USMNT potential strikers can play as lone strikers up top and score goals with regularity. Sargent, Pefok, Pepi, Vasquez and even Balugon play in two striker systems. Dike is in an out of the starting 11 as a starter. Wright is the only striker who has played mainly as a lone striker.
I think it’s time we start thinking about formation change to maybe a two striker system. Would love to see Pulisic partnered with a striker for the USMNT up too. That could potential be dynamic.
Many fans were begging for a formation change during Gregg’s tenure as manager. We could all see how anemic the attack was in the 4-3-3…most of us realized quickly that Gregg was never going to change. Hopefully whomever becomes our NEW manager will look at the strengths of our player pool and pick a formation that best suits our players and not select players for a pre-defined inflexible system.
Too be fair the squad looked fairly poor when playing other formations @Honduras, N. Ireland, 1st half of NL final, Canada in GC.
Sargent was doing most of his scoring as a lone striker when Pukki was out hurt to start the season. He’s been notably less prolific when Pukki returned and Norwich moved him back to right wing/second striker because Pukki’s been in the spots Sargent likes to operate in though Sargent’s good enough he’s making even that work.
Sargent’s underrated, IMHO. He was actually unlucky not to get a goal or two in the World Cup and he does a bunch of things very well. The big problem he had seemed to be between his ears; he’d create a chance with good movement, a good touch, and often more than a bit of skill…and then scuff it from three yards in front of the net. Now that he’s seemingly over the yips he’s a Prem-level striker, IMHO. And I do think unless Balogun jumps aboard he will remain the #1 striker in our pool.
He was still playing in more of a two striker set up when Pukki was out.
I thought it was his 12th goal of the season.
Clinical finish by Sargent. He is in form and physically fit. Making runs and being active all game, and to be just able to stay focus and score late in the game from distance……absolutely brilliant. Congrats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN2bt7RZpQY
Thanks for posting the match highlights!