The Salt: Merry Christmas

Hello, all!

As we bring to a close an eventful 2019, I thought I’d bring you an extra helping of The Salt for your reading “pleasure.” (Scare quotes intentional.)

This year, I thought I’d put together a bit of a wish list for the club. It may be a little late to get these things on Christmas morning, but that’s going to have to suffice.

A winger, but not Anderson Julio

OK, so it’s not like I wouldn’t take Anderson Julio, but it looks like he’s going to Atletico San Luis, which is decidedly not Real Salt Lake. So with that in mind, I think we need to put a winger on our list. A good one.

Maybe that winger is Joao Plata. I don’t know. Does he fill our need for a winger? On the back of what we saw last season, no. Also, maybe. He’s such a mystery.

I’d especially love to take a winger that could double as a central forward. Because...

Another forward to compete with Sam Johnson and maybe offer some tactical variety

Right now, our forward line is a bit scattered and mix-and-match. It’s become a combination of Damir Kreilach and Sam Johnson — mostly Kreilach, who is most definitely a central midfielder masquerading as a forward with some success — and that’s probably not quite good enough.

Rather than reverting to Kreilach year-after-year, it would be nice to have a second center forward option who can provide something a bit different. Maybe a crafty forward rather than a fairly straightforward one could be useful? One who excels in build-up? I dunno, you tell me.

A season of success

We’ve spent too many seasons flirting with success but never really finding it. It would be a nice, welcome change to have success. Would that really be so much to ask? I guess it’s a hard thing to just pluck from the air, but I sure miss being success-adjacent.

Off-topic

I hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season, however you choose to celebrate or not celebrate.

That’s all.