This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Craig Waibel has a range of corny soccer quips. He knows it, too. There are instances when Real Salt Lake's general manager will say, "The answer is yes," when he isn't asked a yes-or-no question. And when it comes to an anemic offense, his go-to is: "It's nearly impossible to win when you don't score a goal."

That was a topic touched upon in his conversation with the Tribune Thursday. How does RSL address its sudden scoring woes of 2015? The club's six strikers on the roster managed to combine to score 19 goals. Sebastian Giovinco, Kei Kamara and Robbie Keane all had more on their own.

More on RSL's massive offseason, in which the club must fortify the depth and talent of its roster if it is to return to being a postseason team in 2016.

***

» If addressing needs in the attack will be a priority this offseason …

Waibel: "We obviously need to strengthen our attacking corps. We need to get more goal-dangerous. That's not just an evaluative statement on our players, but our staff as well. It's not just the players that didn't score. It's the coach's responsibility to put them in the right spot and have the right style.

One of the things that greatly impacted our scoring this year were injuries. And a player that scored 13 times for us last year, wasn't even available for the better part of 3-to-4 months of our regular season in Joao. We ended up having to play a lot of young players together, which in terms of continuity of attack, it's a very difficult thing to continue to produce the numbers we have in the past.

"We can't ignore the fact we scored the second-fewest goals in the league. We're not trying to ignore that fact. We're addressing it head-on, so there will be changes made. We have to consider all forms of change as an organization in terms of players, all the way into our tactics, into coaching."

» If he expects the market for strikers to be more tight than other positions …

Waibel: "Identifying a forward that can come here and score goals is not the hard part. Fitting them into our salary cap and the way our budget is laid out and fitting them into an MLS salary cap spot and all of that? That's a little bit of a harder task. We have 3-to-4 four months to get that done. Identifying a goal-scorer isn't the hard thing: I'm not the only one identifying them. Every other soccer club in the world is identifying them, too. Winning that battle in a short amount of time is a tough project, but we're also in a position where we don't have to panic. I think what we have to do is we have to require our guys to come into preseason fit. We have to have a clear plan in the way we're going to train when we show up. We have to have a very direct message this offseason that it's a lot of time off. It's unacceptable to come back not in a physical condition to work hard from Day 1."

» If he feels RSL needs more speed and/or athleticism in the midfield …

Waibel: "Some of the slowest midfields, though, are the most effective, to be honest, because they're all very good soccer brains and [have high] IQ. Luke and Kyle do a good job of breaking up attacks. I will say one of the biggest stats that people tend to miss is [in 2014] we scored first. A lot. We didn't trail much in a whole season. When you're playing with a lead, it means the other team is stretching, creating space they otherwise normally wouldn't have defensively. In terms of the amount of pressure we put ourselves under, the countless times we had a chance to score a goal and then didn't, it then turns around and then you're evaluating the things like pace and all that."

» If the center back position needs upgrading in the offseason …

Waibel: "It made it easier to evaluate the entirety of our depth there. We got to see every single center back, whether we wanted to or not. When you have that ability to evaluate them, you have to trust yourself on what you saw. Without a doubt, our back line will play a heavy focus in what we're trying to get done this offseason."

» If he plans to look in-league for positional upgrades before searching abroad …

Waibel: "We'll evaluate everything. We'll be scattered throughout the country the next couple weekends, watching every college team and player that we're considering and scouting even more. There's the focus on the draft, we'll continue to do that throughout the remainder of the season including conference tournaments; heavily focused on Waiver draft and Re-Entry [draft] to see if there's a piece that makes sense for us to go pick up and we'll also be in the free market in terms of the world market.

We won't run away from any opportunities. We're a bit understaffed to be able to attack all of it, but we also understand that, look, when you finish the way we did, it's impossible to sit here and tell people it's OK. It's disrespectful to sit here and tell people it's OK. We'll be looking at every single avenue we have, and evaluating it."

» If he expects an impact player to be at No. 5 in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft …

Waibel: "I expect there to be a talented player. There's talented players if you look back at the draft, typically the Top 10 are guys that are going to contribute minutes, but there's always some guys that if you do your homework, are a little bit farther down in the draft that will come to light over the course of a year or two. The college draft doesn't guarantee you a player that can come in and impact your team right now. Our league's just maturing really quickly. It's very difficult for any player or a young international player to come in and do well right away.

I think there's a little bit of talent everywhere, and the hard part about the draft is asking kids that have never played professionally to have the mentality of a professional. [That is] one thing you can't predict. You can't predict it with the No. 1 guy or No. 60 draft pick. The mentality of becoming a pro and being a pro and sustaining performance over a 10-month season is what you have to hope you get right."

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani