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With the MLS season just a few days away, we preview the Red Bulls with daily position-by-position previews. You can read all of them here. Today: The Red Bulls' situation at left wing.
If preseason is any indication, the left winger will be Fabian Espindola and he'll be free to interchange with Thierry Henry, who will line up at forward.
If Espindola can't go, Lloyd Sam can play there, as can Ruben Bover and Jonny Steele. Connor Lade is another potential choice there and had a very good game playing there against the Seattle Sounders at the Desert Diamond Cup.
Left wing, and the interchanging that's likely to cause mismatches even when teams game plan for it, is one of the stronger points tactically for this team.
Squad rotation or injury could hurt the team in that part of the field, though. Neither Sam nor Bover nor Steele nor Lade are strikers, which puts a dent in one of the most tactically interesting things about this team along with the central midfield.
The good news is that Espindola has played at least 22 games for Real Salt Lake since 2009 and Henry, despite sitting out games on turf, has had an off-season to rest. That means, barring major injury, they should both be in the line-up and play the majority of games.