Read on a lot on her about Mellis being wasted on the right

Read a lot on here about Mellis being wasted on the right

And Flicker making a balls up by playing him there to accommodate Dawson.

Mellis played the whole first half on the right and even though Wigan edged it I thought we almost matched them. For the 10 minutes before their goal we were all over them. It was a great goal btw. Yes, you'd expect one of our midfield players to close him down, but they'd just made 5 or 6 first time passes before the scorer received the ball and it's almost impossible to stick with every man when the opposition are moving it around so slickly. At times Wigan reminded me of us in 96/97 - pass, pass, pass, pass Redfearn/Thompson/Hendrie fires one in to the bottom/top corner from the edge of the area. Just like Wigan's first.

So we played well first half with Mellis wide right, and our best moves came when he drifted inside, away from the congestion in the middle of the park and with space to run.

Second half Wigan dicked us. Right from the off. If you didn't notice Dawson had been moved out to the right and Mellis was in the middle with Perkins. Mellis did nowt. Crowded out of it when he had the ball and ineffectual in defence. Wigan ran riot. We did nothing. Coincidence? Maybe, or maybe the tactics in the first half, with Mellis playing wide, were the better option.

 

Re: Read a lot on here about Mellis being wasted on the right

Good post.

But I still feel a 5 man midfield with Mellis operating in a floating role is more 'our thing'.

But what do I know?

 

Re: Read a lot on here about Mellis being wasted on the right

As I've said numerous times, 4 at the back was the right decision. We don't have natural wingers and IMO we should have played a diamond in the middle.

 

Re: Read a lot on here about Mellis being wasted on the right

I agree with that. I prefer it when we play five. But I don't think I've ever seen Mellis have a good game when he's played in the middle of a four. I've seen him have quite a few when played wide right.

I think our best formation is 3-5-2 with Mellis behind the front two, but we accumulated a lot of points in the second half of last season playing 4-4-2 and Mellis was at his best in that formation on the right and drifting inside.

Personally, I don't think it would have mattered what formation we played today, Wigan were just better than us. Had we had Etuhu and Digby in midfield it might have been a different story, but you have a big squad to accommodate these injuries.

We've only got to play Wigan one more time, let's see how we cope with the rest of the league, who imho won't play nearly as well as Wigan did today.

 

Re: Read a lot on here about Mellis being wasted on the right

Not only have they retained some quality players they have one of the best managers at this level.Coyle got Burnley out of this league playing those high wide attacking fast players and it looks like that tactic will continue to pay dividends.having watched the football league show I think there are some other sides who might match them in qpr, reading and the likes of Leicester. We just need to hope we can finish above Doncaster, Yeovil and millwall.

 

Re: Read a lot on here about Mellis being wasted on the right

Bobby Hassell playing anywhere as Captain would have made a big difference

 

Re: Read a lot on here about Mellis being wasted on the right

The point stands either way but didn't Mellis play from the left last season rather than the right with Jimbo often on the right? I was surprised that we had switched him over to the other flank as he's now cutting inside onto his weaker foot.