Friday Mailbag: Designated players and Real Salt Lake, Monarchs movement and more

Cameron Fowler asks: "Which player will bounce back and forth the most from Monarchs to RSL? (be used by both, in essence)"

Matt says: For me, that's probably Jordan Allen. His utility makes him a valuable player as the season rolls on, but he'll also need regular experience to get back to the player he can be — after all, that long injury layoff won't make anything easy for him.

Nathan Anderson asks: "Do you think we will use that DP slot soon? Or will it be a while?"

Matt says: You know, my guess is that it'll be a while. Dell Loy talked Hansen about how we cleared up that spot, and if we really have and he has a full understanding of the system — and keep in mind that system could change when the CBA is signed — then maybe we'll see it sooner rather than later. If we want a big-name European player, that probably wouldn't come to fruition until the summer.

We had several other questions about that, so we'll plan to write something a bit more substantial about that early next week.

Trevor Brady asks: "Favorite type of hard candy?"

Matt says: Trevor, as one of the fellow folks on Off the Crossbar, you should know what my response will be. That's not a complete sentence, and I'm saddened by that fact. Anyway, the answer: candy hearts, which are abnormally hard.

Dog and Deuce (they're podcasters!) ask: "Which loss affects team more early in the season, Borchers or Wingert?"

Matt says: It's got to be Nat Borchers, for me. If we'd retained Carlos Salcedo, maybe it would be Chris Wingert, but Abdoulie Mansally has good experience to build on, and Demar Phillips will be a fantastic left back (mark my words!) This isn't to discount Jamison Olave, who will hopefully be a great center back for us once again.

Check beck for more answers to your most pressing questions.

We weren't able to answer every question, and we had a few repeated themes. We'll try to touch on those as next week starts.