CMS, let's cut to the chase

[c0lz]

yeah lets get rid of our top scorer FFS God we got some dam idiots here, if he asked to go then that's different matter.

He willing to drive forward take on players and have a go at any chance he gets, win's penalty's he even chases for the ball when he not getting the service not just sitting on his lazy ass waiting for it to arrive.

Some fans have really short memories even when we had Murray God that bloke missed some F**king sitters.

 

[Da Man Clay]

Stay for me. Just play someone upfront with him FFS. He's so isolated.

Thing is, even if we did get a target man, Gus wouldn't play them together. We signed Paynter and Vokes last year and them even more frustratingly just played Vokes/Paynter OR CMS. Must have started as a pair only once or twice.

 

[Mutts Nuts]

If he needed a lift to Norwich, would you drive him there and tell him not to bother about the petrol money?

Yes, but it`s too late we will never get the chance of promotion to the premier league that we have had this season ever again,we blew it by not signing strikers and sticking with McSmudger and Barnes or rather Gus Blew it .

 

[Chesney Christ]

Toughie. Seems like a lovely bloke and a top professional.

I'd miss his incredible hard work and his pace. But I wouldn't miss his generally horrendous finishing. Anything more than £2m and I'd bite Norwich's arm off.

 

[Chesney Christ]

People saying he doesnt suit our system are deluded. We play him upfront on his own, countless times with 20/30 yards between him and other players and expect him to hold the ball, turn, run shoot score... If he doesnt fit the system then there are not many players who can. The bloke has scored 9 goals this season in the most anti-attack team I have ever seen. The problem is Gus persisiting with this lacklustre game plan. My issue at the moment is not with CMS, Gus or any INDIVIDUAL. The WHOLE team needs to take a look at themselves as time after time we put in gutless performances, perfectly personified by our inability to come back from behind in about 60 odd games.

We play on the biggest pitch in the UNIVERSE and deploy 3 central midfielders at home. No striker would be able to feed off that croq of shit. Take Murray at Palace. I dotn think hed score that many goals in this side. Why? Because Palace play good, direct attacking football involving 2 wingers scaring the shit out of teams and putting them on a plate for Murray. Do we pose even half the attacking threat? No, we have wingers with pace who cant cross or who are drilled into "DEFEND" and Ashley Fritzl dozzing about on the other side. We just are not a good attacking side.

Is this a wind-up? We create a colossal amount of chances most games. Were you at the Forest game (where we created enough chances to score 7 or 8 before half time)? The Bolton game - where an inspired performance by Bogdan was the only thing stopping it be an absolute massacre. The Peterborough game? Which was an absolute onslaught from minute 1 to minute 90. And these aren't even games that we WON.

You're living in last season, mate. Its 2012-13. We create more chances than any Brighton team I have ever seen. Yes, we have the odd shit game (Watford etc) but generally we dominate the whole match. Our problem isn't lack of chances. Its that Barnes, CMS, Hoskins and Dobbie couldn't hit a cow's arse if there were given 9 gigantic banjo's each. In terms of missed chances, CMS is by far the worst culprit, which is why I would be very glad to see him go.

You usually talk sense mate. Presume you've had a bit too much alcohol over Christmas or something.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Toughie. Seems like a lovely bloke and a top professional.

I'd miss his incredible hard work and his pace. But I wouldn't miss his generally horrendous finishing. Anything more than £2m and I'd bite Norwich's arm off.

Statistically this season he has scored with 22 per cent of his shots (although that stat does not include last two games) which at the time was a better rate than Chris Wood and not too distant from Charlie Austin.

What might surprise people is that at that stage of the season Austin had made 75 shots compared to Mackail-Smith's 45. So perhaps we are not creating the abundance of chances for Mackail-Smith people think we have been.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Statistically this season he has scored with 22 per cent of his shots (although that stat does not include last two games).

This stat does not allow for all the times he recieves the ball in or around the box, and fails to actually HAVE a shot, because his control or decision-making lets him down.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

This stat does not allow for all the times he recieves the ball in or around the box, and fails to actually HAVE a shot, because his control or decision-making lets him down.

True. Just making the point that things are not always clear cut.

 

[chucky1973]

People saying he doesnt suit our system are deluded. We play him upfront on his own, countless times with 20/30 yards between him and other players and expect him to hold the ball, turn, run shoot score... If he doesnt fit the system then there are not many players who can. The bloke has scored 9 goals this season in the most anti-attack team I have ever seen. The problem is Gus persisiting with this lacklustre game plan. My issue at the moment is not with CMS, Gus or any INDIVIDUAL. The WHOLE team needs to take a look at themselves as time after time we put in gutless performances, perfectly personified by our inability to come back from behind in about 60 odd games.

We play on the biggest pitch in the UNIVERSE and deploy 3 central midfielders at home. No striker would be able to feed off that croq of shit. Take Murray at Palace. I dotn think hed score that many goals in this side. Why? Because Palace play good, direct attacking football involving 2 wingers scaring the shit out of teams and putting them on a plate for Murray. Do we pose even half the attacking threat? No, we have wingers with pace who cant cross or who are drilled into "DEFEND" and Ashley Fritzl dozzing about on the other side. We just are not a good attacking side.

this with bells on, i want CMS to stay,but want Gus to change our we play especially at home, 442 please with KLL and Buckley bombing down each wing and CMS and Hoskins up front. Bridders and Orlandi in the middle

 

[Flavor Flav]

He's definitely worth keeping in my opinion. Hoskins and Dobbie can both f*** off though. CMS can't score all the goals himself and he's hardly had great support from our other strikers.

 

[Langley]

Craig Mackail-Smith Bio, Stats, News - Football / Soccer - - ESPN FC *

Last Season:
44 Starts (6 subs)
Shots 68
On Target 34 (50%)
Goals 10 (1 in 7 shots, 1 in 3.5 shots on target)

This Season:
20(1)
Shots 38
On Target 19 (50%)
Goals 10 (1 in 4 shots, 1 in 2 shots on target)

*ESPNSoccernet uses the AP stats, which can be a little iffy with shot count. Often times the player profile pages don't seem to match what the tally would be if you tally up each match report (as I've been doing, which shows 81 shots last season, 44 shots so far this season). Sometimes they don't count the shot if it resulted in a goal, sometimes they do. Apparently we had only 7 shots and none on target v forest, despite calderon and buckley shooting on target in each half, and gus referring to us having 11 shots in the first half alone, so take this as just an estimate.






I agree with HKFC. CMS is usually immune from criticism for until it's been a few games without scoring (though, it is taking shorter goalless runs each time - last season h'd need to get to 7 or 8 games without a goal before criticism started, now he's on 3 games since his last goal).

Barnes will receive criticism even if he scores (because it's not about goals! It's about performance... unless he puts in a performance and doesn't score, in which case what does it matter how well he plays if he doesn't do what he's paid to and put the ball in the net, or if it's another player they don't hate in which case the goals scored are a defence).
Harley only received praise for one game (v peterborough where he scored a great free kick - won by barnes, incidentally).



As to the bigger question, I think while we don't always get the ball quickly to him, he can have trouble turning with the ball (he can't seem to turn around without running in a giant circle, and when running with the ball v watford several times he just followed the path of the ball, even if he was behind the defender and it took him away from goal, his first touch can be awful at times meaning when we do get it to him, and in recent games he has been going to ground too easily too often looking for a free kick he is never going to get, both which lead to the ball coming straight back.

When he is on form he is great, and even when out of form he works his socks off, and does his best to draw defenders, creating space for other players to do their thing. I would be happy to keep him, but if he goes I hope we replace him with someone who will match his work rate, though I'm not sure someone with his workrate, but better/more consistent first touch, strength and finishing would be available to anyone in the championship for very long.

You missed out the chance he had to out run the Watford defence, with a through ball from Bridcutt, which by time he got to the ball it was near the corner flag. Is this the kind of service he thrives on ? It's what he gets alot of, ie crap balls and no midfield support, this in my opinion is where the problem is. Many of you think it is Craigs fault that he is not producing, just remember this is a team game, and the other 9 outfield players are as much at fault.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I also think if our midfield players had chipped in with the odd goal the issue of a centre forward would not be so pressing. For example, Crofts had the best chance against Watford but hit it over.

 

[5mins-from-amex]

I'd quite happily drive him there in his R8, then expect him to give it to me as his wages will no doubt be a lot higher. Failing this, I would take a Babyliss trimmer with a no.1 on the end to his shitty hair..... and then maybe slash his Achilles.

 

[mikes smalls]

Did this a week or so ago...

BLOG on striker conversion rates

Interesting, thanks. So it appears scoring 1 in 5 is more than acceptable in the Championship.

 

[Danny-Boy]

People saying he doesnt suit our system are deluded. We play him upfront on his own, countless times with 20/30 yards between him and other players and expect him to hold the ball, turn, run shoot score... If he doesnt fit the system then there are not many players who can. The bloke has scored 9 goals this season in the most anti-attack team I have ever seen. The problem is Gus persisiting with this lacklustre game plan. My issue at the moment is not with CMS, Gus or any INDIVIDUAL. The WHOLE team needs to take a look at themselves as time after time we put in gutless performances, perfectly personified by our inability to come back from behind in about 60 odd games.

We play on the biggest pitch in the UNIVERSE and deploy 3 central midfielders at home. No striker would be able to feed off that croq of shit. Take Murray at Palace. I dotn think hed score that many goals in this side. Why? Because Palace play good, direct attacking football involving 2 wingers scaring the shit out of teams and putting them on a plate for Murray. Do we pose even half the attacking threat? No, we have wingers with pace who cant cross or who are drilled into "DEFEND" and Ashley Fritzl dozzing about on the other side. We just are not a good attacking side.

THIS! Poyet still seems to be in"tippy-tappy" mode. That might have worked against pedestrian Div 1 teams, but with sides just down from the Premiership, and those (like Watford) able to attract really good Continental players, it just isn't quick enough.

I really think Poyet is not just on a European obsession but a South American one. It didn't work longterm for Ossie Ardiles who (off the top of my head) is the only other South american to have tried managing an FL team in recent years. The problem is not just style, it's our climate. I have it on very good authority that this autumn/winter of deluges may be the norm in future rather than isolated climatic blip. In which case passing to feet in wet conditions may not be the best way to get defences on tghe back foot; defenders will be more likely to slip with balls put up in the air.

The Gus bus may get bogged down - very few pitches will drain as well as the Amex on its chalk base.

 

[Weststander]

This stat does not allow for all the times he recieves the ball in or around the box, and fails to actually HAVE a shot, because his control or decision-making lets him down.

Top post.

The CMS loyalists scramble around for stats to justify the £3.25m, but we see before our eyes at each game, that the guy just isn't a natural finisher or footballer, and it's costs us big time.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

From the BBS:

I can't see that we would be able to get anyone to even closely replace zaha with that in mind I would be happy to us sign cms from Br**hton I think he is a good player would play well off Murray and he is out favour on the South Coast

 

[Rookie]

this with bells on, i want CMS to stay,but want Gus to change our we play especially at home, 442 please with KLL and Buckley bombing down each wing and CMS and Hoskins up front. Bridders and Orlandi in the middle

That would get ripped apart down the middle, why change the philosophy of the club because 1 player cannot fit into it?

 

[chucky1973]

That would get ripped apart down the middle, why change the philosophy of the club because 1 player cannot fit into it?

we are home ffs, should take the game to the visitors, teams do a job on us at home now, its not rocket science.

 

[Zebedee]

From the BBS:

I can't see that we would be able to get anyone to even closely replace zaha with that in mind I would be happy to us sign cms from Br**hton I think he is a good player would play well off Murray and he is out favour on the South Coast

Now if that happened, and it proved to be successful, it really would piss me off big time.