Josh Sargent’s aggravating spell on the sidelines looks to be coming to an end.
Norwich City boss David Wagner confirmed Thursday that Sargent is set to resume club training next Monday. The U.S. men’s national team forward has been sidelined since late-August due to an ankle injury.
However, his return would provide a key spark to the Canaries attack heading into 2024.
“Today, we had everyone on the pitch except Josh. He’ll be back in training on Monday,” Wagner said in his pre-match press conference Thursday.
Sargent led the Canaries last season with 13 goals during the English Football League Championship campaign. He started off this season strong with three goals before suffering his injury, which has ruled him out of September-November international duty.
The Missouri native was rewarded earlier this fall, signing a five-year deal with the Canaries, which will run until June 2028, the club announced Thursday.
“I’m very happy at signing the new contract and excited to stay here for a bit longer,” Sargent said back in October. “I’ve liked this club ever since coming here, they’re doing really good things. I see myself as being a big part of the team moving forward.
“My family have settled really well here, we’re really happy with our time so far here,” he added. “It’s a lovely place to live. I really want to get promoted with this club, it’s the biggest thing. I had a very good start to the season. I just want to get back as soon as possible to keep that momentum going.”
Norwich City is currently 10th in the EFL Championship, five points out of the final playoff place.
I can almost guarantee Greg goes back to a more traditional 4-3-3 for the Copa America. Adams is slated to return in the second half of the season for Bournemouth. So I foresee Reyna and Tillman to be the back up wingers behind Weah and Pulisic.
I think that depends on who we’re playing, actually. Against Bolivia and even Panama I seriously doubt there’s a need for a purely defensive midfielder, and Weston McKennie is particularly dominant when he doesn’t have to play in a rigid structure and he can freelance around and find the game. I don’t think Adams sees the field against either team unless it’s to close out the game, and I could see us in a 4-4-2 look against Bolivia and most likely a 4-2-3-1 against Panama. I do think Adams almost certainly starts against Uruguay, though, though again I think we probably play a 4-2-3-1 double pivot with Adams and Musah playing as co-6’s behind Gio.
We’re getting some different and more versatile tools in the toolbox and a lot more depth. Which, incidentally, allows us to deploy situationally and rotate more as opposed to just playing the same 11 all the time and seeing them run out of gas when we hit the knockouts. I think the days of playing the same formation with the same guys all the time (because that’s all we have!) are pretty much over.
Good to hear. He had a good year last year and was off to an even better start this year before getting hurt. If he can continue to produce, he’s got to be in the conversation for the national team. Whether he could displace Pepi or Balogan, or whether Berhalter would call all 3 of them up together, remains to be seen. Sargent has played some wing, so that versatility might make him a little more valuable.
Agree. I’d personally call him as our third forward for exactly that reason, especially since nobody has really distinguished themselves at wing aside from Pulisic and Weah. Bring in one other wing – right now, probably Aaronson, even if his current form is wretched – but aside from that, what winger has really made a compelling case they cannot be left off the roster? There’s no rule that says you must bring four wingers, especially when the fourth one likely won’t help you but that third forward most likely can, particularly if we’re planning on playing any 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-2 like we started in against T&T.
Josh is versatile. He can play on the wing and do what is necessary but he’s not a winger. He’s been moved around a lot.
People bitch about Weah being moved to wingback but at Werder they had Josh playing a combined #6/#9 role. You don’t often see a deep lying defensive center forward but they did a lot of weird stuff at Werder.
Hopefully now that Pukki is in Minnesota, Josh can focus more on his inner #9 that has been held dormant for so long.
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Brenden is not a winger.
“current form is wretched”
It’s worse than wretched. He signed for Leeds in May of 2022. Including his time with Union he has since played 59 games combined. He has one goal and 3 assists in that entire year and a half or so.
His confidence is in the toilet and he’s been useless.
But he doesn’t look useless because he’s always in motion, always seemingly close to doing something good but not quite getting there. Leeds spent 30 mil on him so there will be a long leash to try and get some money out of him but it doesn’t look good right now.
I see no reason to cap him but he does run around a lot and some USMNT fans are cross country people and seem to value that for some reason. He’s the new Ariolla.
Leeds don’t like Americans but Brenden is one American who may wish he had never heard of Leeds.
Agree about Josh being serviceable but not really more than that as a winger…but for a fourth winger who likely won’t see the field much at all – I mean, Zendejas got zero minutes against T&T in either game – he’d serve, and he’s got the skills to spell either Balogun or Pepi. Plus any of McKennie, Musah, Reyna, or Tillman have played the wing. Regarding Aaronson, he’s more of a Hobson’s Choice…who else do we really have behind Pulisic and Weah right now? You could definitely convince me to bring Zendejas if he’s playing well – I still do like him – or especially Parades if he starts emerging in the second half of the season; Parades is really, really talented. But wretched form or no, I still have Aaronson ever-so-slightly ahead of those two at the moment.
And comparing him to Arriola? Ouch. That’s rough. I mean, Arriola has zero skill on the ball and can’t play on the turn to save his own life; Aaronson is very skilled on the ball and can turn in a shoebox. He’s also got a set of iron lungs – which can matter, because especially if there’s an injury ahead of him, it means he can play the full 90 and still have his legs without having to sub him off. And I love his willingness to press, press, and press some more…which I suppose he does share with Arriola. So Brendan is a role guy…but just to me he does still – maybe – have a role at the moment. (I am not convinced that is true by 2026, I think he likely will have been passed by then.)
That said, I didn’t realize Brendan’s form was quite that bad, but it’s been obvious for awhile the Prem was far too physical for him…so hey, let’s double down on that and jump to the Bundesliga? Like: dude. No. Know thyself, my man. Hopefully he’s on loan somewhere – PSV would be a dream landing – by the time Copa America rolls around. I do think he might fit in Italy if he can find any takers. Technical guys who can fill a role often do well in that league.
quozzel,
“Agree about Josh being serviceable but not really more than that as a winger…but for a fourth winger who likely won’t see the field much at all – I mean, Zendejas got zero minutes against T&T in either game – he’d serve, and he’s got the skills to spell either Balogun or Pepi. Plus any of McKennie, Musah, Reyna, or Tillman have played the wing.”
There are guys who play on the wing and get the job done but aren’t really wingers. Josh is not an embarrassment on the wing.
“True ” wingers are a rare breed these days, Pulisic being our only one. They have mostly been replaced by attacking fullbacks. Weah is a wing forward. I always think of Marcus Rashford when I see Timo.
“Regarding Aaronson, he’s more of a Hobson’s Choice…who else do we really have behind Pulisic and Weah right now? You could definitely convince me to bring Zendejas if he’s playing well – I still do like him – or especially Parades if he starts emerging in the second half of the season; Parades is really, really talented.
I also would like to see more of Zendejas but he seems to be very much on Gregg’s “lukewarm” list, not out forever but at some point he’ll get back to you. Meaning he only sees significant action if someone is unavailable for some reason.
Paredes might be more likely to get time. He’s the kind of direct player that Gregg can utilize more readily. Alex has more subtle skills and it is taxing on Gregg to figure out how to make the best use of him.
“But wretched form or no, I still have Aaronson ever-so-slightly ahead of those two at the moment.”
“And comparing him to Arriola? Ouch. That’s rough. I mean, Arriola has zero skill on the ball and can’t play on the turn to save his own life; Aaronson is very skilled on the ball and can turn in a shoebox…a set of iron lungs – which can matter, because especially if there’s an injury ahead of him, it means he can play the full 90 and still have his legs without having to sub him off. And I love his willingness to press, press, and press some more…which I suppose he does share with Arriola. So Brendan is a role guy…but just to me he does still – maybe – have a role at the moment. (I am not convinced that is true by 2026, I think he likely will have been passed by then.)
That said, I didn’t realize Brendan’s form was quite that bad, but it’s been obvious for awhile the Prem was far too physical for him…so hey, let’s double down on that and jump to the Bundesliga? Like: dude. No. Know thyself, my man. Hopefully he’s on loan somewhere – PSV would be a dream landing – by the time Copa America rolls around. I do think he might fit in Italy if he can find any takers. Technical guys who can fill a role often do well in that league.”
People love the idea of Brenden as opposed to the actual reality of Brenden.
They love the idea that he’s like a car that you never have to put gas into. Paul is like that.
What used to separate them is Brenden was skilled and Paul wasn’t.
Today, Paul still doesn’t have skills and Brenden, for some reason, can’t utilize his anymore.
At the present, functionally, they are the same. Except Paul is less expensive. I don’t want Brenden capped anymore, at all because he’s taking valuable time away from guys like Tillman and Zendejas.
Brenden’s not finishing well anymore. He’s not creating goal chances anymore. He took a bunch of corners against, I believe it was, Oman and they were all Pulisic specials, hit the first defender and come to nothing.
Because of his perpetual motion style which he still has, people don’t notice that he isn’t productive with what he is doing.
I don’t know about Italy but right now the rumor is that he is going back to Leeds.
Brenden, the guy a lot of people think is weak and puny with Leeds who are in the Championship battling for promotion. A physically brutal competition, even more so than the Premiership. This according to Farke himself and he ought to know.
That should be a hoot and a half.