EMERSON ROYAL – A PLAYER PROFILE After 4 years of targeting him, Milan seems to have finally gotten their target Emerson Royal. With Milan looking for a upgrade over Calabria, Royal has been a Moncada target for quite a while. Standing tall at 1.81 meters and weighing 76kg Royal is not one to bull very easily and has good physical traits. With this thread I tend to take a look at Royal’s style of play over the last few years starting from Betis.

TACTICAL PROFILE With maximum minutes coming in Betis in the 19/20 season, Royal played under coach Rubi who used either 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2 as his formation with Emerson playing as a RB/RWB. Either way Emerson was given license to go forward with Marc Bartra covering his tracks.

At Tottenham with Nuno sacked within 9 games and Conte coming in it meant going back to the WB role in a 3-4-3 with Kulusevski playing as the winger and Emerson tucking in. Royal’s best form in Tottenham came in when Conte started using him more in the center as an inverted

Under Ange, he was more of used as a Center back than at Right back with Ange preferring Pedro Porro’s attacking output over Emerson’s defensive solidity. Now lets look at some of his traits

TRAITS A defensive trait that is vital for any defender espec Full back is their 1v1. Emerson Royal has very good skill in 1v1 battles.

Emerson uses his upper body physicality explicitly well to block runners and those trying to beat him.

With a height of 1.81 meteres (1.83 according to some sources) Emerson is always handy to make clearing headers when defending corners

If Emerson is beaten he has the pace to recover the ball by making recovery tackles as he has done in this instance against Haaland.

Emerson likes to use his synergize his tactical intelligence and his body to intercept balls or block shots or crosses which is a large part of his game

Emerson meanwhile has the pace to close down space quickly and there fore this helps in playing a high line and showing aggression while pressing the ball carrier. One thing his stats also reflect is how hard he works and how much distance he covers in a game.

Emerson has a good touch and technique. He tries to receive the ball with the inside of his foot and his take downs show good close control. When on the ball Royal’s first instinct is to go for the safest passing option if that means making back passes. He tries to do 1-2’s

His attacking 1v1’s are not the best as he rather take the safest option and pass the ball rather than take his man on like Theo or Leao does.

Lapses of concentration are his worst enemy. Many times too many gaffe’s have happened with him not paying attention to what’s happening

OPINION What I think about Emerson is that he is someone who has been profiled incorrectly by fans by thinking he is a modern fullback. Like Theo he is not someone who will burst forward and join the attack and dribble past players. In the friendlies in the pre-season tour,

SELF-IMPROVEMENT As per newspaper reports Emerson Royal employed a neuroscientist Dr. Fabiano de Abreu Agrela to help improve his game on the psychological aspects while investing close to 1 million pounds on hyperbaric oxygen chamber while also employing scouts to study Achraf

STATS Having conducted an analysis of Emerson and his data in comparison with other defenders he clearly seems to be clear in terms of defensive numbers of other Serie A players. Here is the graph

CONCLUSION I have tried explaining about this player in my best capacity as I feel he is a very different full back than we are accustomed to. Wondering with Fonseca he can get into his own style of play and bring the best out of himself. But I think in the end what mattered to

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