Tottenham Hotspur right-back Emerson Royal has been branded as “useless” after a poor run of form for the north London club.
That is the opinion of TalkSport pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor, who was speaking on the station about the performances of the Brazilian full-back.
Royal has been criticised by fans of Antonio Conte’s side, with several poor performances costing the club at critical times this season, with a red card in their 3-1 north London derby defeat at Arsenal last month perhaps the most notable.
The 23-year-old has made 17 appearances in all competitions for Spurs this season, suggesting that he is unlikely to be dropped from the side anytime soon.
But Agbonlahor, who was arguing with fellow pundit Jamie O’Hara – who argued the former Aston Villa striker’s assessment of Royal was harsh – believes that the right-back is a liability.
He said: “Did you see him give it the eyes and kick it out of play [against Marseille], please tell me you did?
“86th minute, you need a winner in the Champions League, and Mr. Timberland, no-look pass out of play.
“Jamie, that’s useless to me, don’t you dare.”
TIF Thoughts on Agbonlahor’s comments…
Whilst we believe it’s over the top to brand Royal as “useless”, we don’t believe that the right-back has helped himself at all this season.
An underwhelming average SofaScore match rating of 6.89 for his performances in the Premier League this season means that the former Barcelona man is ranked as Spurs’ 11th-best player this season, suggesting that he’s not exactly a vital figure for Conte’s side.
In his last game in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, the right-back lost the ball 15 times and achieved a pass success rate of just 75%, which earned him an extremely poor rating of 6.3 for the clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Therefore, we are entitled to agree with Agbonlahor’s criticism of Royal and feel that the club should be looking for another right wing-back in January if they don’t trust either Matt Doherty or Djed Spence to take his place in the starting lineup.