Craig Mackail- Smith

[Marshy]

Hate to say it, but shocking waste of money. And a squad number. Anybody else's heart now sink when CMS comes on for a second half cameo and proceeds to just run around stupidly fast all over the place without ever looking remotely like a striker?

My heart sinks more when I see Baldocks name on the team sheet.

I bet every centre half in the Championship would rather be up against Baldock than CMS

 

[Brighton Mod]

Which is why so many of us are longing for a manager who will play a striking partnership, not an isolated striker and 5 in midfield

I can only agree, we see teams come to the Amex who play two up front, it makes us look like the away team with one up front. Given that we are now on our third manager who plays this system is starting to make me think that we are recruiting managers who have this mindset. WE will not get out of this division in an upwards diection by playing this style of football, but we may well go down.

 

[jimbob5]

silly wages. Minimum wages and maximum bonuses for results might show that height, management, coaching, systems, diet, atmosphere is all a load of bull. Payment by results is the way foreword.

 

[Brighton Mod]

Hate to say it, but shocking waste of money. And a squad number. Anybody else's heart now sink when CMS comes on for a second half cameo and proceeds to just run around stupidly fast all over the place without ever looking remotely like a striker?

Yes he does run around the pitch trying to get the ball, because the midfield are unable to supply a through ball or anything infront of him that he can work with. This is the same for all of our strikers. Baldock and Colunga score two goals away at Bournemouth with direct ball through the centre and their reward was, being put on the subs bench and our midfield contriving not to repeat the same in the two games since. Its baffling if not frustrating, we desperately need a midfield player that has an eye for a through ball and he confidence to supply it.

 

[kevtherev]

13 goals before getting injured, season before last suggests he can score goals in this division.

 

[Simster]

Hate to say it, but shocking waste of money. And a squad number. Anybody else's heart now sink when CMS comes on for a second half cameo and proceeds to just run around stupidly fast all over the place without ever looking remotely like a striker?

Look on the bright side. At least he's not in the starting line-up doing this. Useless.

 

[Simster]

My heart sinks more when I see Baldocks name on the team sheet.

I bet every centre half in the Championship would rather be up against Baldock than CMS

I doubt it makes much difference. Baldock is usually found in approximately the right place, but rarely moves the two yards required at the right time in order to be effective. CMS will run all day, and very very fast. Unfortunately, usually in the wrong direction. i.e. towards the corner flags and into midfield.

 

[durrington gull]

I doubt it makes much difference. Baldock is usually found in approximately the right place, but rarely moves the two yards required at the right time in order to be effective. CMS will run all day, and very very fast. Unfortunately, usually in the wrong direction. i.e. towards the corner flags and into midfield.

Im not even sure CMS is quick now - lost his pace imo

 

[Marshy]

I doubt it makes much difference. Baldock is usually found in approximately the right place, but rarely moves the two yards required at the right time in order to be effective. CMS will run all day, and very very fast. Unfortunately, usually in the wrong direction. i.e. towards the corner flags and into midfield.

CMS is a better all round player than Baldock and will score more goals.

CMS has to go in Jan though clearly.

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

CMS has previous had spells when he scored a good few followed by barren patches. Overall he has about a goal ratio of 1 in 4 which is far superior to what any of our other current strikers look like achieving.

In the real world £3million for a striker scoring 1 in 4 is not too bad particularly given his work rate and a lack of support up front. Obviously there are better bargains than that but if so we can expect to lose them to the Premiership

The issue is I feel that he has lost some pace with age and particularly due to injury. I do not feel he is the player he was.

Perhaps interestingly the bookies have him at the shortest odds to be our top scorer.

 

[Machiavelli]

I can remember only one game when Ulloa and CMS played together and we scored four goals, I think it was against Blackburn but will stand corrected. They never played together again after that.

It was against Huddersfield. Ulloa scored a hat-trick, and went off soon after. CMS, according to my memory, didn't start, but came on and won the penalty, and then suffered his injury. If I'm right in all of this, then it does somewhat undermine your point: we didn't score four with two up-top; neither did we have two up-top when we hit six (seven if you count Hammond's spectacular effort) against Blackpool a few games later. It's not so much the system, but its application, and the personnel (and, perhaps even, their confidence) that matters most. That said, I'm not advocating a return to 4-4-2. Which is the viewpoint of the vast majority of managers.

 

[Machiavelli]

I doubt it makes much difference. Baldock is usually found in approximately the right place, but rarely moves the two yards required at the right time in order to be effective. CMS will run all day, and very very fast. Unfortunately, usually in the wrong direction. i.e. towards the corner flags and into midfield.

I think you're being very harsh about Baldock's movement which along with his work-rate and the fact that he shoots early, are his key qualities.

 

[perseus]

A good striker would be expected to score once in every other game

e.g. Chris Martin 10/17 Daryl Murphy 10/16 Glenn Murray 5/11
Help with assists 1 & 0 & 0
Shots per game 3.3 & 3.6 & 3.7

cf.

Baldock Goals 2/9 (1) Assists 0 SPG 1.7 Key passes 1.1
Mackail-Smith 1/7 (5) Assists 0 SPG 1.6 Key passes 0.7

There are other aspects to the game as well.

Our best forwards SPG are Gardner and Lualua. 2

Against Wigan, Baldock failed to control three balls that were decent half chances and against Blackburn at least one.

Miscontrol by even successful strikers is common enough though and over twice in a game would be usual.

Ulloa last season 14/33(2) slightly less than one every 2 games, Assists 4 SPG 2.5 Key passes 2.5 Loss of control was poor compared to the best strikers.

Ashley Barnes last season SPG 2.5

Brighton overall last season SPG 13.7 (4th) OT 3.9 (20th). 51% in the box, so it is just bad shooting.

Summary: all aspects of our play have deteriorated this season in comparison to other clubs. Still should be middle of the table if we could shoot.

 

[Brighton Mod]

It was against Huddersfield. Ulloa scored a hat-trick, and went off soon after. CMS, according to my memory, didn't start, but came on and won the penalty, and then suffered his injury. If I'm right in all of this, then it does somewhat undermine your point: we didn't score four with two up-top; neither did we have two up-top when we hit six (seven if you count Hammond's spectacular effort) against Blackpool a few games later. It's not so much the system, but its application, and the personnel (and, perhaps even, their confidence) that matters most. That said, I'm not advocating a return to 4-4-2. Which is the viewpoint of the vast majority of managers.

Hudersfield indeed, I think we scored more with both on the pitch as you state and of course not forgetting the CMS contribution against Forest in his ten minute cameo. I agree with you about a formations application, there are so many factors to make a system work, Ability, leadership, character, empathy, understanding, willingness, skill, application etc, etc. At the moment we don't have the right blend.

 

[Machiavelli]

Hudersfield indeed, I think we scored more with both on the pitch as you state and of course not forgetting the CMS contribution against Forest in his ten minute cameo. I agree with you about a formations application, there are so many factors to make a system work, Ability, leadership, character, empathy, understanding, willingness, skill, application etc, etc. At the moment we don't have the right blend.

Can't disagree with any of that. I'm of the view that we just need a goalscorer (or Baldock to become one), and things beyond that are not too bad.

 

[nwgull]

CMS and Ulloa looked very good together. Unfortunately the occasions that they played together when both were fully fit were limited.

First game was Ulloa's first league game against Wednesday. CMS came on (we were down to 10 men) and we immediately looked more potent up front and pulled a goal back with minutes.

Second game was against Hull, whose organised defence nullified them both - we won with a Vicente free kick and AEA taking out the Hull wall.

3rd game was Hudds. It was 1-1 when CMS came on in about the 65-70th minute. We then scored 3, with Ulloa getting his first and only BHA hat-trick.

Next game was against that year's weakest team: Bristol City. No-one expected Gus to drop Ulloa and have CMS play isolated up front against a team we should've expected to beat. However, we all know what happened at around the 45th minute.

It is tragic for CMS (and for us lot) that he never really got a chance to play alongside Ulloa apart from in a few (partially fit) cameos at the end of last season - although the cross and goal against Forrest is an obvious highlight.

Gus obviously wouldn't have been able to foresee the injury to CMS at Bristol, but I'd rank the decision not to play Ulloa that night up there with the decision to let Murray go as far as pivotal moments in the club's recent history are concerned.

 

[Sam-]

He's not a marquee striker. He's not prolific at championship level. He is probably in higher wages than his goals justify.

But, when fit he is guaranteed to get 10 goals or so a season so he is surely worth a new contract, albeit on what wages??

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

We need to sell CMS in January for whatever we can get in order to free up the wages to :

- sign Murray ( not likely ),
- bring back Zamora ( not likely ),
- or get a new decent striker in who can play effectively up front on his own.

As much as I don't rate Baldock, he is CMS' like-for-like replacement, so we really need a different type of striker brought in.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Great shame about CMS, always liked the bloke and his style of play even before he came to us. Just seems like a lot of bad luck and wrong club/manager wrong time.

Even before he got the injury it just wasn't working, Poyet's system didn't suit him and he has never really built up any momentum.

It's hard to remember a striker, especially a marquee signing, who has done so little yet remained so generally popular. But that is I think because people don't feel he's let them down or stopped trying, it's just been circumstances.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I think you're being very harsh about Baldock's movement which along with his work-rate and the fact that he shoots early, are his key qualities.

Wow. Literally could not disagree more. Baldock continually wastes opportunities by NOT shooting early enough. he did it at least 4 times on Saturday - recieved the ball in the box, and failed to even get a shot away.