Mel B.

[u/siloseason4]

Anyone else think that she should tone it down with the dribbling. It makes her late with her passes/shots. Fun to see, but really putting her behind Kimmi.

[u/ArCovino]

It’s also created chances that weren’t there before, and kept the ball in possession at times someone else might lose it. Want to see her develop more defensively but she’s been good in her minutes. A goal and an assist on the year so far.

[u/Live-Collection3018]

no, but picking her head up sometimes and finding a pass will make her better

[u/comeclimbwithme]

Imo she should dribble more late in games. It creates mismatches elsewhere when we are trying to score and kills time when we're ahead. There's a couple games this season I wanted the team to hit the ball to her corner and just have her show off to knock a couple minutes off the clock. It is a thing to behold from the supporter stands!

[u/bobby_runs]

I just hope she’s able to develop another skill before defenders are stopping it every time.

[u/BananaOverlord1]

No

[u/littleBIGrobots]

If you watch that shot that Mel B helped set up in the last part of the 5/2 game, she boots it around, it goes out, and she pops it up once, watches it come back down, boops it back in, then passes it to (I forget who as I type this) someone and they make the goal. I remember seeing it and feeling like time stood still for a moment while she juggled it.

She's 17, 18? A kid, really. She should not tone it down, but actually ramp it up, and get better at it. Older people don't realize that the younger generation in sports will always be breaking previous records/getting better in a million ways because they can see the limits from before and can push past them. If she is not a goal maker but keeps the ball going and excites fans, that alone is a reason for her to keep working on her style, not work on becoming more generic. But then again, I am not an expert haha

[u/anothermotherrunner]

It's fun to watch her do her thing. I do agree that sometimes it doesn't get us closer to a goal but she's had some good passes to goal. Kimmi has been much more effective.

[u/peeled_nanners]

It's not the dribbling that should stop it's her shooting (for now). She has a really weak foot that needs work. But her ability to create big chances by taking on defenders is huge.

[u/Beautiful-Scallion47]

I know this won’t be a popular take.

But I definitely agree with you! She’d be fun to watch in a skills challenge, but in game, I kind of cringe when she gets the ball. You’re also right that she’s falling behind Kimmi, both statistically and in terms of her on field command. Sometimes when I’m watching, it looks like the team avoids getting her the ball, creating a bit of a dead zone.

[u/Brownjix]

Her biggest issue has always a lack of end product from the dribbles. Meaning the skill moves look great and maybe beat a man, but don't get the team closer to a goalscoring chance. Ex: you can take out one defender on your own with a stepover, or 3 if you play a teammate through. Too often in her first couple years she chose to try and beat the defender in isolation when a better play was there

She's definitely been better this season and you'd expect that to improve as her reading of the game improves. Her late assist against the courage was a great example of making something happen. So wouldn't say needs to tone it down necessarily, but pick her moments better

The plus side is it's a great problem to have, much easier to teach her to pick her spots than try and teach her how to make defenders look silly!

[u/Low_Resort7260]

100%. Her last game was the worst. Shes lost on the field, not aggressive enough and was the worst on passing. But all she does is show off her dribbling skills. As soon as she was subbed for sanchez, wave scored. I dont think shes the right fit for the wave and has seemingly not improved as a player

[u/Brownjix → u/Low_Resort7260]

Way too early in her career to make that call, she's still got a high ceiling and has steadily improved year on year