Justin Vidic is a 21-year-old striker who plays for Brisbane Roar in the A-League. Vidic previously made a handful of appearances for the Newcastle Jets but has broken through as the main striker for Brisbane this season. Vidic has been called up to Australia’s U-23, but so far has not actually made an appearance.
Vidic is listed at 6’1″ (1.87 m) and is quite muscular. The main appeal of Vidic is his athletic ability; he is fast and strong. Every other part of his game is, to put it mildly, a mixed bag. The main way Vidic gets shots is sitting on the shoulder of the last defender and looking to get in behind. His athleticism naturally makes him a danger in this kind of situation. However, his first touch and close control are quite poor for the A-League level, so if he has to do anything other than shoot when he receives those passes, he is in trouble. Vidic’s instincts in the box also leave something to be desired. He is often too slow to get into the box, and when he does get there, his movement isn’t dynamic enough to evade markers. If he could improve this part of his game, it would go a long way to making up for his technical shortcomings, in my opinion. Vidic’s dribbling and passing are both quite poor. A lot of Brisbane moves die because he tries to get involved in the build-up and loses the ball or plays a negative pass that kills the momentum. His lack of technical ability means he misses out on good chances because it takes too long for him to do anything with the ball. But, of course, Vidic is really strong and fast, so sometimes he just destroys somebody in a physical contest and creates a decent chance out of nothing.
Vidic puts in a lot of defensive effort. He has a very high work rate, and that, combined with his speed, can make him helpful on the defensive side of things. He tracks back a lot and makes quite a lot of defensive interventions in midfield. He plays very physically, which can be a good thing, but also means he picks up a lot of yellow cards (at the time of writing, he’s getting yellow cards at a higher rate than he’s getting goals and assists). Despite Vidic’s height, he doesn’t stand out as particularly effective in the air.
Vidic obviously has serious technical limitations that are going to limit his ceiling. But he would be a cheap way to sign a very strong athlete. A similar player would be Kusini Yengi, who was a reasonably successful signing for Portsmouth, then in League One, before injury derailed his career somewhat. So a similar move could work out for Vidic as well.
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