Armchair Analyst: Adding one final piece to the game of Real Salt Lake's Luis Gil

This is the ninth in a series of 20 short columns focused on the things I'm thinking about as we approach the 20th season of Major League Soccer. I'm going to dig into mostly non-obvious questions here – the tertiary stuff that can become bigger over time – rather than the giant storylines (e.g., How do the Red Bulls replace Henry? What if Ozzie's injury lingers? Is this THE year for TFC?).

You can find previous installments in my story archive HERE. For this latest entry, we move west to the mountainous desert...

Real Salt Lake have kept their core. RSL have won a lot – not often the final game of the season, but still a lot – with their core. RSL's style of play has been defined by its core.

And this year, the style of play is going to change just a little bit.

Forget the formation stuff (Jeff Cassar's playing around with a 4-3-3, folks), Joao Plata's injury or the switch from Nat Borchers to Jamison Olave. Those are the big questions that should have all RSL fans at least a little bit worried.

There's less worry about Ned Grabavoy leaving. For whatever reason, it hasn't been much of a story – even though it really, really is:

Those right there are the three most accurate passers of the ball in all of MLS, by Opta's count (minimum 600 passes attempted). Grabavoy may not be the most dynamic, eye-popping talent in the league, but he has an elite skill: He does not turn the ball over. He moves possession to the right spots. He can receive a pass in tight quarters, control and cycle to a teammate.

There is a persistent and stupid myth that those types of passes are not valuable. It is persistent, because we all see the immediate and breath-taking value of a perfectly weighted through-ball, and as simple creatures we are predisposed to those types of vivid memories. It is stupid, because any completed pass – sideways, backwards, whatever – forces the defense to react, to change shape, to open up new gaps and angles of attack.

Those gaps are where certain teams kill you. Grabavoy, for nearly a decade in the high desert, deployed a vast array of mostly unremarkable passes to create angles, gaps, goals, and tons of time on the ball for a team that has never been particularly comfortable without it. He made it easier to attack, and he made it easier to defend. His departure is not insignificant.

Grabavoy will almost certainly be replaced in the starting lineup by Luis Gil, who's had "next" since at least 2012 and has some of those raw, physical gifts that could get RSL over the top:

Gil's footwork is the star of the above show, but spare a moment to think about the quickness and separation he displays on a regular basis. He has the type of athleticism that coaches notice but fans maybe don't, and he has gotten better and better over the years at employing it in the right spots. Gil should be a north-south threat and a goal-scoring asset out of midfield in a way that Grabavoy never was, regardless of what formation Cassar chooses.

Rather than fully unleash those instincts, however, Gil will first and foremost need to rein them in at least a little. RSL's personality will still be defined by its core, and while Gil may want to get out and run, Javier Morales, Alvaro Saborio and Kyle Beckerman won't. For this team, the most important weapon in the arsenal is still the ball. They need to have it, and can't spend appreciably more time chasing it now that everyone is a year older.

So that means the simpler pass is often the better one. The turn away from pressure and into a safety valve is often more rewarding than the low-percentage take-on. The check to the ball is often more valuable than the burst into space past a sleeping fullback.

Gil has all that in his game, enough so that RSL will still mostly be who they've always been.

But he's got other stuff, too. And if he gets the measures right – if he balances the Luis Gil stuff with the Ned Grabavoy stuff – that might change RSL just enough.

The final game of the season is still calling for the core of this team. Gil could be the guy who finally has an answer.