Mason Wells is a 21-year-old winger who plays for Sydney United in NPL New South Wales. Wells previously played for the reserve side of A-League side Macarthur F.C. He has not played for Australia at any level, but has seen some intriguing growth in his offensive output this season.
Wells is a left-footed winger who mostly plays on the right wing. He is listed as 5’9″ (1.8 m) and has a very slim build. Wells’ whole thing is receiving the ball in wide areas and cutting inside, usually to shoot. He has a strong left foot and can hit the ball with a lot of venom. He is good at using feints to gain separation from defenders and get those shots off. But, of course, Wells falls into the trap that lots of volume-shooting wingers do, a lot of his shots are low-percentage garbage. Now, he does get a solid amount of shots inside the box as well. Wyscout gives him 0.1 xG/shot this season which is not great but is certainly far from the worst number I have seen for this sort of player. Despite Wells’ ability to get separation from defenders with feints, he is not really a ball carrier. When he gets the ball in deeper areas his attempts to run with it often lead to him being dispossessed. He is not that strong physically or notably fast and I see that as a limiting factor in his dribbling. This also means that his shot locations are quite dependent on where he gets the ball because he is not going to be dribbling past most defenders. However, Wells does have strong passing. His deliveries from wide areas are very strong. His ability to hit the ball with power is a major plus but he can also play accurate chipped balls into teammates and has good vision to pick these open players out. Wells also does some line-breaking from deeper areas in the field. He often breaks a line and then makes a run off the ball and receives it further forward. Wells has a strong first touch and is good at finding space to receive the ball in wide areas to then cut inside.
Wells is an active defensive player. He generally sits quite deep in his team’s defensive block and shows solid defensive skills. A switch to a more defensive position probably is not on the cards, but he is not going to be a defensive liability. Wells’ lack of size means he is not going to win a lot of physical battles.
To me, Wells seems like a player who is a twist away from a successful pro career. A team that can get him to lean into his passing a little bit more and to be a little bit more selective with his shots would have a solid player on their hands. The logical step up from NPL is the A-League and I think Wells could make that jump, though it would probably be as a backup or rotation player at first. Western Sydney Wanderers are reportedly about to sell Nicolas Milanovic, a reasonably similar player, to Aberdeen so Wells would be a good fit for them specifically.
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