Patrick Agyemang crossed off another first off of his list at Derby County.
Agyemang scored twice on Monday in the Rams’ 3-0 road victory over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. The former Charlotte FC striker celebrated his first brace in English football and his first overall since May while still an MLS player.
John Eustace’s squad struck first in the 32nd minute as Agyemang took advantage of some sloppy Sheffield Wednesday passing. A poor back pass from Pierce Charles was pounced on by Bobby Clark before an upfield pass to Agyemang led to the American’s low drive into the bottom-right corner.
Derby County extended its lead to 2-0 in the 57th minute as Liam Thompson doubled the Rams lead following a set-piece situation.
Agyemang would add the Rams’ third and final goal of the night, roofing a right-footed shot past Charles and into the top of the net after 62 minutes.
It marked Agyemang’s fifth goal of the season for the Rams.
Agyemang played 88 minutes in the match, drawing three fouls, and registered three shots on target. The 25-year-old earned Man of the Match honors as Derby County jumped up to 12th place in the league standings.
Up next for Eustace’s men is a home date with Portsmouth on Saturday before back-to-back trips to Birmingham City and Leicester City to close their 2025 schedule.
On talent alone, Balo and Pepi are the top 2. If they are fit and scoring, they should both be on the WC roster. Agyemang is very much “in the mix”, but he’s likely in a direct competition with Haji for the 3rd striker spot. Haji is a little more versatile in ability to play a wide forward role and has scored a few big goals for the US recently. He’s got the lead on Pat right now
They were both pretty excellent finishes, and he combined with their #10 to set up the second he then got on the end of.
I’ve always really liked Agyemang’s physicality, speed, work rate, energy, and movement…what I didn’t like was his finishing. Nobody will confuse him with Haji Wright or Pepi there. But while folks tend to look at Agyemang and see his age and think: “this guy’s as good as he’s going to get”, I’ll point out that he played five years in college, which slows a player’s development way down even if they are still developing (slowly!), and while stuff like first touch gets embedded before about age 14, finishing is a skill…and that can be improved with practice and experience. I still think he’s got upside he hasn’t reached yet.
Seeing finishes like that is encouraging. I haven’t seen a lot of those caliber from him before…I’d like to see more of that before I go: “he’s absolutely progressing”, but it’s definitely not a bad sign.
Took Wright until 24 to 25 years old to really start finishing well. I think Agyemang will be in a better league in a couple of seasons and also giving both Balogin and Pepi runs for their money in the next WC cycle.
Thats why he is still in the mix for a WC spot. Only 3 goals behind Wright.