Jamie O’Hara has praised Tottenham Hotspur defender Emerson Royal in a recent appearance on talkSPORT (8:41 am, February 20, 2023), after being impressed by the player’s improvement in recent weeks.
Royal signed for Tottenham from Barcelona in the summer of 2021 in a deal thought to be worth £25.73 million (Sky Sports). The Brazilian arrived with great promise but endured a difficult first 18 months in North London, with many fans frustrated at his failure to adapt to a wing-back role.
Nevertheless, the 23-year-old has remained Antonio Conte’s number-one choice in the position throughout the season. Many expected Royal to leave the club last month, but he retained his place at the expense of Matt Doherty and Djed Spence who departed the club instead.
It appears Royal is finally making progress, with vast improvements being made in his attacking play in particular. Having scored in the defeat against Manchester City last month, Royal took his tally to two for the season with the opening goal against West Ham yesterday (Transfermarkt).
His form of late is even keeping new signing Pedro Porro out of the starting lineup. After his performance against West Ham, talkSPORT pundit O’Hara has discussed the manner in which Royal has stepped up his game.
He said: “Emerson Royal, all of a sudden, he looks like prime Cafu. I mean, I don’t know what has happened to him. Pedro Porro has come in, and it has obviously given him a kick up the backside that he needed. He was fantastic again yesterday.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It’s been an incredible turnaround for Emerson Royal recently, and one which I did not see coming at all.
I genuinely thought he was a lost cause, but he’s worked really hard to improve his game and the effort is paying dividends now. He was fantastic yesterday and hopefully he can keep making progress.
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