Brighton to re-unite the Mac-Attack?

It was the most fruitful partnership since Sonny and Cher and now Brighton manager Gus Poyet wants to re-unite the pairing of Craig Mackail-Smith and Aaron Mclean to solve the goal-scoring crisis that has de-stabilised the early momentum of the seaside club.

Mackail-Smith, or CMS as he’s more acronymically known, has not netted since a 1-0 win at Derby on the 29^th November whilst his Brighton side had gone four games without scoring before last Monday’s 3-0 home win over Southampton. 5 wins in their past 18 matches has had Hove Albion falling like Ed Miliband in an opinion poll after another of his inane speeches. They have gone from 1^st to 13^th since their away win at Bristol City in September.

So why turn to Mclean? Well, the two went together like sugar and spice at Peterborough, terrorising lower-league defences like Batman and Robin. The two combined to hit 48 goals in 2007-2008 as the Posh rampaged to promotion to League One, while the devastating partnership continued in the third tier, CMS hitting 26 while Mclean managed 18.

Poyet thinks that going into the market to sign Mclean, now at Hull City, scoring 5 from 19 goals this season for the Tigers, will re-discover the goal-scoring touch of Mackail-Smith who has replicated a long-lost puppy in the absence of his partner in goal-scoring crime. CMS, rather uncharacteristically, has attracted a bout of goal-shyness at the Amex this season, only managing 8 from 31, an under-whelming return from a £3 million frontman.

But will it solve the problem? Poyet seems to be using the logic that CMS will improve if he sticks to what he knows, but it could be that the Scottish striker is struggling from Poyet’s aesthetic style and a lack of direct service from a side that prefers to use the ball slow and ponderously, not long and over the top that was, no disrespect to Peterborough before this page gets assaulted by Barry Fry, being hoofed-out at London Road.

It may become that Gus Poyet will have to change his team’s style rather than enter into the market for Mclean, where CMS often appears to be isolated and chasing lost causes rather than benefit off direct service.

His proposed partner, ex-Bristol Rovers striker Will Hoskins has been beset by injury after arriving at the Amex for what was a record fee, before CMS came along and smashed that particular stat. Hoskins has only made 6 appearances and 1 goal so far and is rumoured to be on his way out of Brighton’s fancy new home, with Bournemouth interested.

@AdamGray1250

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Comments

[Steve@posh]

You obviously never watched Posh play, otherwise you would know the `long ball` wasn`t part of out system. CMS`s strength was that he never gave up and worked tirelessly for the team. That said, I also believe that the `Mac attack is best suited against lower league opposition.
Slow and ponderous play is nice and great to watch, but goals are quite important too.

[Aaron]

Pardon? Long and over the top? Please know what you are writing about before you proceed to do so. I thoroughly recommend that you do your research before making such accusations.

[aza keen]

You have not got a clue. If you ever watched posh you would know that we are one of the best teams at playing high tempo passing football creating loads of chances for our strikers. cms has great energy but is a really bad finisher. The reason he scored so many goals was because he got so many chances every game (granted hes work rate also created lots for himself) but any striker getting 3/4 one on ones every game and a bag full of other chances would of equaled cms goal tally if not better it. If alan shearer played for posh the same seasons he would have scored about 50 goals a season. every time cms was through on goal with just the keeper to beat i was never confident he would score. I did love him though

[Benjo]

Thankyou for showing me that your blog is uninformed, filled with lies and written by someone who has not been to see a match at Posh in at least 4 years, where did you get your "facts" from, Posh have never been a long ball team under Fergie, CMS isnt missing MaClean as his best form for the club came after MaClean left for Hull, chasing lost causes is his specialty so why you think this needs to be changed is beyond me, a work of pure fiction that is even less relible than wikipedia