Prior to joining Spurs, Emerson Royal routinely played as a conventional right back for Real Betis, this whole wing-back, week in and week out has been thrust upon the young Brazilian, by Antonio Conte.
There’s another factor in respect of this player which is frequently overlooked when fans are ripping his efforts to shreds, namely that whilst Tottenham paid Barcelona around £26million for the kid, Real Betis had sold him to the Spanish giants only two months earlier for a reported £7million. It ought to be noted here that Royal was used very modestly by the Catalan side.
Royal made his Champions League debut last night against Marseille, and he performed extremely well, winning 83% of his defensive duels, recovering the ball on 3 occasions, and only losing the ball in his own half once.
The 23-year-old also achieved a successful passing accuracy of 86% which was pleasingly up on his current season average of 83.4%.
For me, this is a player who continues to improve and continues to do his best for us. On that basis, more, please.
Sadly he still cannot cross a ball
You make a good point. If Royal is indeed more of s conventional right-back then his skill set will not include creativity and guile. The wingbacks in Conte’s system are part of a midfield four when attacking, but any other midfield four they’re going to be midfield players by trade, wingers or wide midfielders.
it’s little wonder that we struggle to create much in possession when our only two orthodox midfielders are PEH and Bentancur, both known as defensive minded players. In another midfield four you’ll have wide midfielders cutting in, making a three in the middle on occasion etc. Either that or wingers who travel with the ball etc. This is the main flaw in Conte’s system with this particular group of players. So we’d better get used to grinding results out because that’s going to be happening, fairly regularly…
He went to Barcelona for 7m because they agreed a buy back price when they sent him to Betis as part of their shared ownership deal. He had a great season for Betis and Barca decided to trigger their purchase option and cash in. He wasn’t sold to Barca for 7m because that was Betis’ valuation of him. That’s how I understood the situation.
Spot on, he’s playing well as a pair with Richy
Royal has never been a bad player. But Conte’s 3-4-3 relies heavily on creative wingbacks. And he has near zero creativity. We’re forcing a role he doesn’t know how to play on him. Look at his pass map in the article: zero key passes; not even assists, or chances created, which he should be on top of. We’re talking simple key passes, and he hasn’t got any. For context, imagine how much more successful we would be if we had another Perisic on the right. In the matches where Conte has adapted him into playing in the holding midfield position when late tactical subs have been made, Royal takes to role like a duck to a pool. This shows that his best qualities are defensive resilience and high energy levels, things you need to succeed in a double pivot position.
We don’t need a beast or whatever. We need someone who can bloody cross a ball.
Very good point!
There is nothing worse than losing Messi for nothing when they could have sold him to City for 300m+
He was a beast that first half, getting better and better this season
Never really seen that he is bad as the reputation that has been awarded him by our traditional moaners. He gets caught out of position sometimes, has no real shooting technique and cannot aim many crosses to danger areas. That said he works hard and is improving every game imo. Give him some support and time he will be great under Conte.
I’m perfectly happy with him starting on Saturday for that reason.
However, games v mid to lower PL sides we need something a little more expansive. If the RWB is more of an attacking threat then it takes attention away from whoever plays on the right of that 3 up top
Barcelona’s disastrous transfer dealings nearly led to their bankruptcy and God only knows how they have managed to make some of their recent signings.
I will list below some of their most spectacularly disastrous recruits.
Finally, last but not least, Philippe Coutinho, signed from Liverpool for €120 million.
Never mind, they managed to reduce the deficit slightly by flogging us Emerson for £26 million, having previously signed him from Betis not long before for £7 million.
Some might wonder the reason for my perambulations but I cannot help but feel a delicious sense of schadenfreude when Levy has his pants pulled down. Keep putting up the programme prices Daniel.
Correct. When we are defending deep he performs well. It’s no coincidence that he had cracking games against Liverpool and City away last season.
Spot on good right back bad wing back
Emerson, the place attacks go to perish.
If we played with a back four i’d have absolutely no problem with Emerson, he is a fine right-back. Solid defensively, does not panic in possession, passes.well.
However, his attacking play is pretty average. He possesses neither the guile to beat his man and deliver a quality cross or get behind, or the instinct to attack the back post when a ball arrives from other side.
Not his fault, but he definitely a symptom of our boring play.
Royal’s first instinct is to defend but having his countryman Richy around seems to have brought out some of his innate Brazilian flair and he is getting forward more now.
That said, he’s still young (only 6 months older than Spence) and has improved a lot under Conte. He’s still not great at crossing. We could use another Perisic on the right side as clearly that won us the game yesterday.
He was best out of a bad bunch last night 1st half. Worst ive seen us 1st half under conte. Who knows what would ave happened 2nd half. Red card changed game
I couldn’t agree more H. Emerson continues to improve and let us not forget the boy is still only 23 and last season was a big career move for him, to both a new country and a new league. Naturally there was a steep learning curve and an adjustment period, but towards the end of last season I started to notice some genuine improvement in his performances. This improvement has been continued now into this season and not just defensively, I have noticed his attacking and distribution skills are also becoming more polished. He has certainly now become a worthwhile squad player and as a bonus seems like a great team guy also.
I am starting to believe Paratici and Conte might just know what they’re doing in both recruitment and coaching. Keep it coming please, fellas. With the news that the thoroughly decent and likable Potter is joining Chelsea, this season could prove to be one of the most interesting and competitive in recent history.
Totally agree and I can’t fault him this season compared to some .
If conte had unlimited funds I’m sure he would get him replaced but he hasn’t so he has coached and improved very well.
I think he loves the badge and puts himself about ,probably one of the fittest in the squad if not the most skilful.