Who’s RSL targeting? Taking a look at areas of need

Real Salt Lake is sitting with something like 17 or 18 players on the books right now, and a number of those players are young and untested.

Think Sebastian Saucedo and Ricardo Velazco — those two can probably go on to be great first-team players, but they’re not quite there yet. They need opportunities, but they probably shouldn’t simply be cast into the fire.

With more than a handful of important players on the outs — Javier Morales and Juan Manuel Martinez, for instance — it’s inevitably a good thing that RSL scout Andy Williams is out in the wild right now.

But who should he be looking for? Or rather, what sorts of players is he looking for?

The playmaker

Without Javier Morales, RSL’s midfield is, well, lacking in creativity. It’s not even that we have a bad midfield — Kyle Beckerman, Sunny, Luke Mulholland, Omar Holness, Sebastian Saucedo — so much as we have a midfield that doesn’t have a tried and tested playmaker.

The backup full back

Chris Wingert played a lot of games in 2016. Neither Demar Phillips nor Tony Beltran really missed that many matches, but it was that Wingert spelled for both of them, and he occasionally started over Phillips — only occasionally, and because of injury — that gave him so many matches.

If he doesn’t return to the club, somebody who could fill in on both sides is probably important.

The attacking player

Obviously, we have Yura Movsisyan and Joao Plata at the club, that’s sort of it as far as raw attacking players go. Jordan Allen’s still around, and I hope he gets a shot at a starting gig, but he’s yet to prove he should be a full-time starter at this point in his career. Will he? Probably.

But we still need a great attacking player to give us a boost. Whether it’s off the bench, as a partner with Movsisyan, or playing in some to-be-determined role, we need somebody.

And?

You tell me. This is your thread. Use it.