The American striker scored a hat-trick to take Coventry City to the top of the Championship. Pochettino has to decide how — and if — to use Wright.
Coventry City needed to beat Middlesbrough. The Sky Blues won only two of their opening seven games in 2026, squandering a ten-point lead at the top of the Championship. Middlesbrough, meanwhile, had won six consecutive games to take first place. A win would have put the Boro five points clear and sent Coventry City into a potential promotion play-off fight. Haji Wright didn’t let that happen.
The 27-year-old opened the scoring after 21 minutes and struck twice in the second half to give Coventry City a massive 3-1 win. Wright, who had gone silent after a blistering start to the season, is now up to 13 goals in the Championship. He is now making Mauricio Pochettino’s roster decisions a lot more complicated.
Going into the season, the US striker situation seemed fairly straightforward. AS Monaco striker Folarin Balogun was the clear starter despite an injury-ridden season in Ligue 1. Behind him was Ricardo Pepi, who established himself as a great option off the bench for PSV Eindhoven.
Despite underwhelming performances for the national team, Josh Sargent remained in contention after strong performances in the Championship with Norwich City. Charlotte’s Patrick Agyemang oddly seemed to be a favorite of Pochettino despite mixed performances, while Wright, Brian White, Damion Downs, and Brandon Vazquez all had an outside chance.
A lot has since changed. Sargent has completely taken himself out of contention with a quiet season. He’s also not played in over a month due to an ongoing feud with Norwich City over a blocked transfer. Meanwhile, Vazquez and Downs have completely disappeared from the picture after disappointing spells in Mexico and England, respectively.
Brian White is theoretically still in contention, but it’s hard to see a spot for the 30-year-old MLS veteran. That leaves four realistic options for this summer: Balogun, Pepi, Agyemang, and Wright.
Here’s where things get complicated. Pepi bounced back from a knee injury and was in great form, scoring eleven goals in all competitions. He was slowly playing his way into competing with Balogun for a starting role. Then Pepi broke his arm.
That leaves Balogun as the starter heading into the World Cup. He is, after all, the striker Pochettino seems to favor the most, and is arguably the best player there on paper.
While he might be in decent form for the national team, Balogun has struggled for AS Monaco. He has only eight goals in 29 games this season, with only four in Ligue 1. His last league goal came in November against RC Lens, and he was sent off in the second half.
Surprisingly, Agyemang is sneaking himself into the conversation. The American joined Derby County in a big-money move in the summer. Despite missing the start of the season due to injury, he is in excellent form. His goal on Saturday took him up to 10 goals in the season and, as things stand, put the Rams into the Championship play-offs.
And then there’s Wright. The 27-year-old has had a nomadic career, scoring goals in Germany, Denmark, Türkiye, and the Netherlands. He’s the most recent American to score in the World Cup, although to call his Round of 16 strike against the Netherlands anything but a fluke would be disingenuous.
Since joining Coventry City in August 2023, Wright has found his feet in England. Now in his third season, Wright has scored at least 12 league goals each year despite some injury struggles.
Wright started this season with a bang. He scored eight goals in nine games as Coventry City quickly made their promotion hopes known. A drought soon followed, though, as the American went thirteen games between goals. Despite that stretch, Wright is still up to 13 goals after his Middlesbrough heroics. Only Swansea City’s Žan Vipotnik has more goals in the Championship.
All of which illustrates why Pochettino’s decision is such a difficult one. All four options — Balogun, Pepi, Agyemang, and Wright — can only play striker in Pochettino’s system. Of them, Balogun is the favorite to start, but he’s also having the worst season in terms of goalscoring, albeit while playing at the highest level.
Pepi was in the best form and was locked as Balogun’s back-up, if not pushing for a starting spot. Now, there’s no guarantee Pepi will bounce back yet again and keep up his goalscoring form post-injury. He goes from competing to start this summer to fighting to be in the squad.
Agyemang is, in theory, in the best form. He’s also the option the fans would be least confident about. He is extremely reliant on his physical ability, with more than half his goals this season coming in the air. An unproven, technically limited striker is not what you want in the World Cup. Agyemang still looks increasingly likely to at least be part of the squad.
Haji Wright is the real wild card here. His hat-trick — two goals with his left, one with his right — showed how much of a threat he can be, and only the post denied him a fourth goal. This came against the second-best defense in the Championship.
At the same time, it’s hard to ignore how inconsistent he’s been this season. Wright also has a mixed record for the national team, with seven goals in 20 games. Unlike Balogun, he’s also never played (regularly) in a league that is considered one of the best in the world.
Pochettino could select four strikers this summer, but that may be a waste of squad spots, given he will likely only use one striker following his recent success with a 3-4-2-1. He could bring all four and try to play the hot hand up top, but that itself is a risk. Look at Qatar, where Gregg Berhalter elected to use each of Wright, Sargent, and Jesús Ferreira. Only Wright scored.
Wright has more goals in 2026 than any other American striker. It also doesn’t hurt his case that in November, he scored a brace against Australia, who will face the United States in the World Cup. Despite this, he’s still hardly a lock for the national team — he could be a starter this summer (unlikely, but not unreasonable), or he could not even be in the squad.
Pochettino has his share of question marks heading into the World Cup, but none is more important than the striker situation. Balogun is the obvious choice, but if Wright can return to his form, he may throw a wrench in the works. It’s a good problem to have, but it leaves Pochettino with no room for error this summer.
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Image via ccfc.co.uk.
