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2019 was a big step back for Brooks Lennon. After seeing a lot of minutes in 2018 and starting nearly every week, he went from a consistent starter at the right back position to an infrequent starter sometimes playing right back and sometimes playing in the attack. Lennon was just never able to find his stride throughout the season.
He played in 28 matches, getting 16 starts and notching 1,539 minutes. Yet at the end of the season, he had just one assist to show for it.
Some of his struggles are due to the fact that early on in the season, Lennon played right back a lot, which is not his natural position. Throughout 2018 he played this position as well, much to the dismay of a lot of fans. Many people thought he would be better and more well utilized higher up the field.
Some struggles were due to his lack of consistent playing time as well. Lennon had 16 starts but went through phases where he would start a few weeks in a row, not play hardly at all for a month or two, then be thrown back into the fire.
Lennon struggled to find his rhythm in 2019. After starting 32 games in 2018, this adjustment of his time being cut nearly in half caused him to never find a consistency in 2019.
He has a lot of talent and a very high ceiling, though. Lennon had consistent call-ups to the youth national teams with Jason Kreis at the U23’s and Tab Ramos at the U20 level. He even has been called into the senior national team camp under Gregg Berhalter, but never gotten his senior national team cap.
The point is, Lennon is young. At just 22 years old and playing out of his natural position for most of that time, it’s tough to see just how good he could be. If given consistent playing time at a favorable position, Lennon could be a huge talent. He is one of many who came out of the RSL academy and has a bright future ahead of him, he just hit a bump in the road in 2019.
At the end of the 2019 season Lennon was traded to Atlanta United for $300,000 in targeted and general allocation money, and he will not be returning to Real Salt Lake in 2020.