Player Watch: Emerson Royal

[Joshua shepherd]

It's quite amusing how many more people are sticking up for him now he playing well. But where was this when he was struggling and the abuse was insane. I have said for a while he didn't become bad, he was a good player at Betis and Barca.

Once we get more attacking rhythm going, Emerson will start racking up the assists. Will also help when more than two players attack the box.

Really stood out...

 

[Flobadob]

It’s amazing what confidence can do to a footballer. 25 million has gone from looking like a rip off to looking like really good business. You can give him nothing but credit for the way he’s worked hard until the tide has turned in his favour and now he’s making the most of the confidence he’s gained and really enjoying his football. He’s done a Sissoko

 

[Finchyid]

It’s amazing what confidence can do to a footballer. 25 million has gone from looking like a rip off to looking like really good business. You can give him nothing but credit for the way he’s worked hard until the tide has turned in his favour and now he’s making the most of the confidence he’s gained and really enjoying his football. He’s done a Sissoko

Also helps not getting booed every time he gets the ball

 

[AtoubaToothpaste]

Obviously you haven't been a Spurs fan for very long. Have you forgotten Kyle Walker already ?

Even Corluka was better overall than Emerson (so far), IMHO. The latter's done well recently, but apart from a handful of games, he's not pulled up any trees. Let's all just chill out on both abuse and praise and see how the lad develops before we proclaim he's the messiah.

 

[mil1lion]

Is there a case that he’s our best ever player?

Give him a 10 year contract ? and the captaincy ?

Joking aside he could be our best ever Brazilian

 

[thelak]

Obviously you haven't been a Spurs fan for very long. Have you forgotten Kyle Walker already ?

Who is he?

I only started supporting them a year ago. Call me a glory fan but jumped on the bandwagon after our majestic run to 4th and plucky Europa Conferance group stage performance

 

[bubble07]

It's one thing criticising him on a forum but fans that boo him at stadiums is pathetic. I'm sure we can all agree on that

 

[mil1lion]

Good question regarding Sess. I think Sess has the raw ingredients to be a good wing back, and would be better going forward (than Royal) in terms of shooting ability. But I agree with you that he's too tentative and I wonder if there's a way to teach that physical bravery and doggedness into Sess. That's what Emerson has now, he's shed being tentative and really gets stuck in to the point of relishing the one-on-one battles. As long as he and the team aren't just sitting back inviting opponents on to us, Emerson is happy to have the individual duals and drive forward. if it continues, he's very difficult to play against.

Sess needs more of that. I'm not sure if coaching can resolve that doggedness issue. He may be a more introverted guy. But he'll have to at least develop resilience and some relish for individual duals.

I think it's the injuries that are the biggest psychological issue for Sess. He has yet another injury now and it's hard to see him ever get over that in the back of his mind. Even Ousmane Dembele struggled for some time and then looked a world beater for a while, now he's injured again. It must knock a player back mentally so you have to have that mental strength. Romero for example has suffered from injuries but never impacts his game when he returns as he throws himself into tackles. I don't see that same mental strength in Sess as I do with Emerson either. I doubt he would have managed the crowd unrest as well.

 

[djhotspur]

I think it's the injuries that are the biggest psychological issue for Sess. He has yet another injury now and it's hard to see him ever get over that in the back of his mind. Even Ousmane Dembele struggled for some time and then looked a world beater for a while, now he's injured again. It must knock a player back mentally so you have to have that mental strength. Romero for example has suffered from injuries but never impacts his game when he returns as he throws himself into tackles. I don't see that same mental strength in Sess as I do with Emerson either. I doubt he would have managed the crowd unrest as well.

I think Sess just needs to go. Hes never going to make here.

Only thing he has going for him right now is he's HG. I would like to see us get in a young talent LWB, like the guy we were linked to from Southampton who we can bring through and develop along side Udogie and Ben.

 

[DJS]

It's one thing criticising him on a forum but fans that boo him at stadiums is pathetic. I'm sure we can all agree on that

This.

Absolutely nothing gained booing individual players playing for us as all it will mainly do is knock their confidence even more.

And why would you boo your own players anyways?

Sure we can say they’re crap on here (without resorting to personal resorts) but booing at the games is dumb.

 

[joey55]

Surely the overwhelming lesson we learn from Emerson's dramatic turn around is that booing and criticising a player can sometimes be a very good thing! Obviously that's a bit tongue in cheek as I have no idea if the criticism he received inspired him to improve. But it does seem odd that people are saying that those who booed and criticised were wrong to do so and proof of that is Royal's upturn in form. Players like Soldado and Jansen recieved nothing but support and they went from bad to worse. Maybe some groans and boo's could have done for them what it's done for Emerson! Again, I'm not saying that that is necessarily true, but just pointing out that conversely, the popular notion that criticising a player is an inherently bad thing, isn't necessarily true either.

Personally I've never really thought Emerson was that bad. The truth is, most FB's are "bad" as it's an incredibly hard position to play. There are surprisingly few universally rated FB's relative to other positions. You only need to look at how many of our fans used to criticise Walker, who was probably the best RB in the league. Currently the best RB in the league is Trippier and he was deemed as not good enough by a large chunk of our fan base.

Someone like Trent Alexander Arnold gets heavy criticism each week for his inability to defend. He's the opposite of Emerson, in that he's great going forward, but the other half of his game is lacking. But that's what makes FB such a tough position and even more so in our formation, where it's more of a wing back role. Thesedays, FB's are expected to have to defensive qualities of Emerson and creative brilliance of TAA. That's asking a hell of a lot from a player and explains why there are so few FB's that are universally rated.

 

[AtoubaToothpaste]

... few FB's that are universally rated.

Very good post. The other issue with Emerson is that I don't think Conte was doing him any favors at all for expecting him to be a wide-attacking threat. As soon as he changed by having him going inside the channel and supporting Kulu narrowly, the better he became. I'm a firm believer of generally letting fullbacks defend and support and letting the wingers do the crossing/attacking. It's what both types are good at and lessens the burden on both in expecting them to do everything. But then what do I know?

 

[Frozen_Waffles]

Most funny thing for me is how he always finds a calm solution with a ball when under pressure.

I am panicking but he cold as ice.

Anyone else with such feeling?

What is massively underrated is his ability on the ball. Just watch him, he doesn't lose the ball, he always keeps possession. With Romero and Kulusevski it's unsurprising that most of our attacks come down that side.

Basically he was attacked by spurs fans for his crossing ability (which is much improved and he generally uses short passes instead these days).

However on every other metric he is up there with the best full backs in the league:

Strong, fast, big, hardworking, teamwork, positioning, tackling and for me his passing very good as well.

The problem is he is a young lad from a different league and country and he's adapting to the best league in the world. It takes time.

 

[Joshua shepherd]

What is massively underrated is his ability on the ball. Just watch him, he doesn't lose the ball, he always keeps possession. With Romero and Kulusevski it's unsurprising that most of our attacks come down that side.

Basically he was attacked by spurs fans for his crossing ability (which is much improved and he generally uses short passes instead these days).

However on every other metric he is up there with the best full backs in the league:

Strong, fast, big, hardworking, teamwork, positioning, tackling and for me his passing very good as well.

The problem is he is a young lad from a different league and country and he's adapting to the best league in the world. It takes time.

Yep. This is why even when Doherty was playing quite well he wasn't really a better option because he couldn't pass his way out from the back. With Romero and Kulu close to him we're able to pass our way through a press on the right. A shame that's the only place we can but it's good progress.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Only Chelsea offer 10 year contracts ?

Fine then at least we should re-name the stadium ‘The Royal Hotspur Stadium’ ?

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

What is massively underrated is his ability on the ball. Just watch him, he doesn't lose the ball, he always keeps possession. With Romero and Kulusevski it's unsurprising that most of our attacks come down that side.

Basically he was attacked by spurs fans for his crossing ability (which is much improved and he generally uses short passes instead these days).

However on every other metric he is up there with the best full backs in the league:

Strong, fast, big, hardworking, teamwork, positioning, tackling and for me his passing very good as well.

The problem is he is a young lad from a different league and country and he's adapting to the best league in the world. It takes time.

Yep he keeps the ball so so well.

If he can work on his crossing he’d have it all.

£44mil on Porro well spent to unlock the full potential of the goat ?

 

[spurmin]

What is massively underrated is his ability on the ball. Just watch him, he doesn't lose the ball, he always keeps possession. With Romero and Kulusevski it's unsurprising that most of our attacks come down that side.

Basically he was attacked by spurs fans for his crossing ability (which is much improved and he generally uses short passes instead these days).

However on every other metric he is up there with the best full backs in the league:

Strong, fast, big, hardworking, teamwork, positioning, tackling and for me his passing very good as well.

The problem is he is a young lad from a different league and country and he's adapting to the best league in the world. It takes time.

And this comment was popular opinion 100 pages ago.
How times have changed.



He is utter shit. Wing back or fullback, he isn’t good enough but especially as a wing back.

I don’t care what Conte has done in his career as a manager, his stubbornness playing him constantly is absolutely moronic.

Here is an idea, play that Spence lad. He might prove not good enough too, but at least give him a chance! He can control a ball, attack down the flank and run which is instantly a big improvement on the fake Brazilian.

 

[Kingellesar]

He has turned it round and credit to him, most of us wrote him off. Myself included, I thought Porro would come in and then Royal would slowly fade away in the background and be sold in the summer.

Now he is one of the first names on the teamsheet, I love his relationship with Romero too, they both seem to feed off of each other. Both love a challenge too.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

The thing is Royal has never been a bad player he was just never a Right Wing Back, he needed time to build his knowledge and confidence in that position.

I said this over and over that RB is not the same as RWB especially with the skill set he had, he had some adapting to do, they’re very different positions.

Huge credit to him and the coaching staff for his improvement.

Still needs to work on his crossing and final ball and attacking output but his defending and athleticism and ability to keep the ball are all brilliant and most importantly his confidence is growing which makes a huge difference.

 

[kremlyn]

Some world class back pedaling in here.

If you're twiddling your thumbs now, you could give the ERG a call?