Premier League

Tottenham Hotspur: Alasdair Gold slams another poor Emerson Royal display

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Image for Tottenham Hotspur: Alasdair Gold slams another poor Emerson Royal display

Journalist Alasdair Gold has slammed Tottenham Hotspur defender Emerson Royal after he was ‘dreadful’ yet again in his team’s most recent game. 

Spurs just about managed to scrape past in their latest Premier League outings, coming back from behind on three occasions to win 4-3 on Saturday afternoon.

Indeed, Leeds United put up a valiant fight but collapsed when it mattered most as two late goals from Rodrigo Bentancur were enough to see Tottenham come away with all three points.

Despite the win, it’s fair to say there were some poor displays in the Spurs’ team and Emerson was perhaps the worst of the lot. Gold certainly didn’t hold back in his criticism of the defender when writing an article for football.london after the game.

The journalist worte: “Emerson had a tough day in front of a frustrated crowd. As blunt as it sounds, the Tottenham fans have made it clear they want to see anyone but the 23-year-old in the right wing-back role. Emerson’s enthusiasm and energy are unquestioned, but his suitability for the role in a Conte system with his attacking limitations is often questioned.”

Gold later added: “The Brazilian makes good runs off the ball, which is why he was there to scuff a shot into the turf and at the keeper early on from Dejan Kulusevski’s pass and then to blaze over the bar from Davies’ ball following a fine flowing Spurs move.

“That latter miss brought huge groans from all corners of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the scrutiny was always hanging over him. Each misplaced pass received similar audible frustrated moans, including one dreadful attempt to play a cross-field ball to Ivan Perisic, which instead was hooked into the centre of the pitch for Leeds to counter-attack.

“Earlier Emerson had been caught ball-watching and out of position as Crysencio Summerville found a bus-lane worth of space to run through between the wing-back and Eric Dier to fire past Hugo Lloris.”

Before concluding: “The Spurs fans just wanted someone else down the right. When Spence warmed up down the touchline early in the second half he got one of the biggest ovations of the game.

“An even bigger one came though on 57 minutes as a huge booming cheer came from the crowd as it was announced that Emerson would be coming off for Doherty. It made for an uncomfortable watch as the Brazilian walked off amid the cheers and his manager, the coaching staff and many of his teammates put their hands on his head as he trudged by.”

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TIF thoughts on Emerson Royal and Spurs…

Worryingly enough, this is not the first game in recent weeks where the Brazilian has drawn the ire of journalists and fans alike. In the win over Bournemouth at the end of last month, WhoScored writer Ben McAleer called out the player after a terrible attempt at goal.

Against Leeds, according to stats recorded on SofaScore, Emerson was pretty unimpressive too. In his 57-minute cameo before being hooked, he completed just 69 per cent of his attempted passes, missed one big chance, lost the ball 13 times, made one foul and failed with his only attempted cross.

On that evidence, it’s no shock to see Gold ripping into the defender after his poor afternoon. The only real surprise at this stage is, why does Antonio Conte keep starting him?

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