This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

How does the departure of Javier Morales change the landscape of this Real Salt Lake offseason?

"Well," deadpanned general manager Craig Waibel, "you have to replace him."

It's a task that sits atop the priority list for a franchise that for a decade relied on the brilliance of the Argentine midfield playmaker who steered Real Salt Lake to become an annual contender in Major League Soccer. The 36-year-old announced he was leaving two weeks after he felt slighted when he said the club informed him his 2017 option wouldn't be picked up, and no additional offer came behind that news.

Dramatics aside, Morales leaves a gaping hole needing to be filled. Real Salt Lake's most-consistent attacking player moving on after 59 goals and 97 assists in 294 matches across all competitions necessitates Waibel and his staff needing to find an admirable replacement.

"You honor players as best you can if they are indeed on their way out and you go find the next one for your fans to fall in love with," Waibel said. "The challenge is simply that. Redefining, if we need, who we are in our identity, and I think we have a great core of really promising and talented young guys that our fans deserve the opportunity to fall in love with."

The RSL fan base fell head over heels for Morales, and rightfully so. The attacking midfield role is reserved for players with supreme soccer IQ, high technical ability and the desire to control the flow of an entire match. That's what Morales accomplished so consistently in his decade at RSL.

"I think right now we don't have anybody on our roster that can play that position like Javi did," RSL coach Jeff Cassar said. "He's a special player, and he played the game, sees the game like not a lot of people in our league have. To go out and find that, it takes work, it takes a lot of scouting, but that type of player isn't on our roster."

Waibel said RSL has players capable of playing in that role in the 4-3-3 formation. Luke Mulholland, Omar Holness and Jordan Allen were names that surfaced in recent weeks as younger players with the skills to play that spot, albeit differently than Morales.

"We have players capable of being in there," Waibel added, "but we don't have the answer on our roster as of today."

Once Morales announced his departure, RSL head scout Andy Williams tweeted that those are shoes impossible to fill. "But I'll try and get as close as possible to them," he wrote. Waibel confirmed that the franchise is in a position to go out and search for a new Designated Player. And attacking midfielders generally demand the sort of salary numbers that fall in line with a DP.

The on-the-field void left by Morales is a hit, but his voice in the locker room was a bridge between cultures, too.

"[It's about] finding a player that can replicate the technical ability, the rhythm and the tempo of the position, how influential he was consistently over the years in a statistical format," said RSL analyst Brian Dunseth, "and probably just as important, being such a great personality, leader and conduit in the locker room between Spanish-speaking and English-speaking players."

Dunseth warns that RSL doesn't necessarily need to be searching for a pure central attack-minded midfielder in the mold of Morales. He pointed to the rise of midfielders who have the ability to range all over the attacking half such as Colorado's Shkelzen Gashi, Portland's Diego Valeri, Montreal's Ignacio Piatti and Sporting Kansas City's Benny Feilhaber.

The replacement could be contingent on how Real Salt Lake's 4-3-3 personnel looks in 2017, and beyond. As for RSL fans in search of a silver lining?

"The club will probably have more money than they've ever had to go out and identify and sign potential difference-makers," Dunseth said. "And I think that's one of the biggest, most-massive differences that we'll see this offseason."

ckamrani@sltrib.com

Twitter: @chriskamrani —

Replacing Javi Mo at RSL

• Three-time MLS All-Star

• RSL's all-time leader in assists with 81

• In 294 matches across all competitions, Morales tallied 59 goals and 94 assists

• Seven seasons of at least nine assists