Manly coach Brian Melrose has reshuffled his backline ahead of this weekend’s clash against Penrith.

Sam Lane will start at flyhalf for the undefeated competition leaders, with Nick Holten and Kevin Fuavao set to play alongside one another in a new-look midfield combination.

Despite the changes, Melrose said he’d like his players to be comfortable playing in a number of positions.

“It’s great to have Sam back playing again. We’ll mix and match when we’ve got injuries and players unavailable but I like players to have the ability to play multiple positions,” Melrose said.

“Sam will play No.10 this week and Nick Holton will play No.12. Kevin Fuavao has filled the No.12 spot very well so far this year so I guess we’ll just have to see who is available and who is in the best form each week and then pick the side from there.”

While the Marlins are eight from eight at the midway point of the season and seven competition points clear of Norths in second spot, Melrose still thinks his side needs to improve.

“We’re not where we need to be if we want to be considered real contenders at the years end. Our attack has a long way to go and we’ve let in four tries twice in the last three weeks. Against Norths, we were second best at the breakdown, so we’ve got plenty to get better at.”

However the coach has been pleased with the Marlins ability to adapt to a different challenge each week.

“We’ve had quite a few injuries and players unavailable in recent weeks and we’ve had to adjust our starting side and tactics each week to suit our opponents,” he said.

“The guys that have come in have done a great job and even though we’ve been far from perfect, we’ve found a way to stay in each contest. That’s what counts.”

Penrith continue to show signs of improvement each week and came close to claiming their first win of the year against Parramatta a fortnight ago.

“We’re definitely improving, we just need to limit our bad patches in games,” Emus coach Julian Huxley said.

“We do ad-lib footy quite well and are hard to stop when the boys get excited and support each other.”

Despite that, Huxley said his side understood how difficult the challenge would be this weekend.

“We need to do the basics well against Manly, tackle well and support our ball carrier.”