Erik Holt sees ups, downs in fourth RSL season
Holt had ups and downs in 2022.
Erik Holt came into 2022 in his fourth season with Real Salt Lake. The coaching staff typically deployed Holt as a lock-down substitute off the bench, but he did get a string of starts towards the beginning of the campaign when RSL was a bit depleted due to injury. When he got fairly consistent minutes at the start of the year, he was pretty decent with not too many errors to speak of and helped the team pile up some surprising results that had them toward the top of the table early on.
Once RSL's back line started to get healthy, his minutes took a dip. In fact, he played in eight less games in 2022 than he did in 2021 and almost 800 less minutes.
Whether bad luck, bad timing, or something else, it seemed like when Holt came on the field as a sub RSL tended to concede more goals. Take, for example, the road game against Seattle. Holt came on as a sub to close out the final 30 or so minutes. Almost immediately, Rusnak scored with Holt attempting to close him out but not stopping the shot. Even worse, a week later Holt came on with less than 10 minutes to play at home against the Whitecaps. RSL seemed to have the game in the bag, but Holt's marking on Gressel was sub-par and Vancouver stole two points on the road.
What's next for Erik Holt?
Holt is still on the RSL roster and will likely be back for the 2023 season. This may be his last year to show consistency and that he is an MLS-level defender. He did really well with the Monarchs previous to getting minutes with RSL, but has yet to show that he is dependable on a regular basis. If he cannot rise to that level of play then his time with RSL, or maybe even MLS, may come to an end.
Statistical recap
- Games Played: 10
- Games Started: 6
- Minutes: 560
- Goals & Assists: 0
