The simple reason behind Maclaren's frightening goalscoring form

Melbourne City striker Jamie Maclaren credits the silver service provided to him by his City teammates for his incredible form in front of goal to start the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season.

In just his fourth Hyundai A-League appearance of the campaign, Maclaren bagged his eighth and ninth goals as he led City to a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Western Sydney Wanderers at Bankwest Stadium.

Those nine goals have come from just 15 shots.

He has also become the first player in Hyundai A-League history to score two or more goals in four successive games.

The 26-year-old is on a seemingly unstoppable hot streak which has garnered 19 goals in his last 11 games for both club and country, but the Caltex Socceroos striker says the credit doesn’t just go to him alone.

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“I’ve always said through pre-season I’m only as good as the guys behind me,” Maclaren told FOX Sports after his brace earned City a 3-1 win over the Wanderers.

“You saw Lachie Wales he came on and made such an impact.

“He came on and cut it back to me, I made the darting run and he found me and it’s up to me to put the ball in the back of the net.

“I’m just in a good place at the moment and that’s what happens when you’re full of confidence."

FOX Sports analyst Mark Bosnich echoed Maclaren’s sentiment after the game, hailing the striker’s teammates for their role in his phenomenal start to the campaign.

“His teammates are really doing the business for him,” Bosnich said.

“You don’t score that many goals unless your team is creating not only that many chances but normally double.

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“Kudos to (Erick) Mombaerts and the rest of the side for creating those chances for him.”

Under new City boss Mombaerts Maclaren has found the perfect coach; a man hell-bent on implementing a fluid, attacking game style both easy on the eye and difficult for oppositions to handle.

It’s made for some wild score-lines throughout the first seven rounds of play, but Maclaren is loving every minute of it.

“First of all I love working under (Mombaerts),” Maclaren said.

“He’s a fantastic manager, he’s an offensive manager.

 

“Day one in pre-season we thought we were going to have the runners on, but we had the boots on, he had the balls out and we’ve been working since day one.

“Our structures are working, we’ve still got a long way to go, we’re improving but like I said both defensively and offensively we need to improve.”

Another City player greatly benefiting from the arrival of the French manager is Josh Brillante, who scored only his third goal in Hyundai A-League history against the Wanderers.

The central midfielder is relishing the freedom of playing higher up the park under Mombaerts, and he understands the importance of the emphatic result after their dismal defeat last weekend, conceding three late goals to throw away a two-goal lead over Brisbane.

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“That was massive for us,” Brillante told FOX Sports post-match.

“As you saw we worked our bums off and we came away with the win, especially after last week it just shows what the guys are like.

“I’m so happy... I’m really enjoying the higher up position and getting forward.

“I’m really enjoying the higher up position and getting forward, I don’t get to score many goals so I think I kind of blanked out a bit there, it was quite nice to get a goal and even better to top it off with a win.

“I’m not always the best at timing but tonight I just kept my run til late and (Maclaren) knocked a nice one in there, if I missed from there I would have been questioning myself a lot.”

City’s 3-1 victory takes them four points clear of Sydney FC in second place, who have two games in hand on Mombaerts’ side.