But vicelich has been so poor in this tournament, he's no longer up to playing in midfielf - too slow.� And why still two up front?
Mixed result as a CB but Vicelich does pass the ball better than Brown. He can still move well enough but it is the passing and the combination with Elliot that will be the positive. What we need are players who don't lose ball possession. I just think he will do better than Brown as well as having the professional club experience to position himself in order to pass the ball. He's just a better passing link.
I rather have a player who passes well and position well before having a runner with poor passing skills any day and frankly Brown is not in-form and running out of gas. Let the ball do the traveling rather the player.
This is also why I have Smeltz having a deep forward role in a split front system. To increase the options for Vicelich while he is in a predominant defensive midfield role. The other reason is that the Iraq game is not going to be a box to box game so he would not need to run as much as you think. It will be either in our half or in their half because of the Broca coaching tactics. Either way Vicelich is still the better choice over Brown for accurate quick passing.
I have split forwards up front with Smeltz as a deep forward/striker and Killen doing the physical donkey work pushing onto the last man. It is close to a 4-5-1 but more attacking options. I put a deep forward because:
1.) Smeltz can do this role well with a bit of guidance i.e. he is either deep on defensive in our half, ready for a counterattack move or if we are in their half for a period he is up front to push on the Iraq's defence line.
2.) Also I have Vicelich and Elliot as twin defensive central midfielders that can pass the ball to him accurately and safety in the centre of the midfield, so thing which has been lacking.
3.) The split forward can increase space between defensive midfield and forward and allow Smeltz time to drop and pass to any of the four midfielder on the counterattack and bring the opposition defence with him to break up their line more, hereby exposures gaps for passing and running through.
......RH never got the players fired up for both games and didnt play an attractive brand of football.
