Ange Postecoglou may have just discovered perfect solution to Destiny Udogie Tottenham dilemma
Emerson Royal more than made his case to Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou on Friday evening as he delivered a very good performance at left-back in the 2-1 win over Crystal Palace
Emerson Royal made his case to play at left-back if Destiny Udogie is ever missing.
Question marks surrounded the fitness of Destiny Udogie going into Tottenham’s Premier League clash at Crystal Palace on Friday after his early substitution against Fulham four days earlier. A major player in Ange Postecoglou’s team since making his debut for the Lilywhites at the start of the campaign, the Italy international exited the pitch on 56 minutes in the win over the Cottagers after he felt a bit of tightness at half-time.
Playing on for a further 11 minutes after the restart before making way, the head coach revealed in his pre-match press conference prior to the Crystal Palace fixture that the left-back would be assessed leading up to the game. In the end, Udogie didn’t make the matchday squad with Tottenham clearly not wanting to take any chances and risk causing any further damage.
Whereas it was Emerson Royal who replaced the 20-year-old against Fulham, Ben Davies, upon his return to the matchday squad after he missed out at the beginning of the week due to a knock, was given the nod by Postecoglou. Starting only his second match of the season after previously playing from the off in the Carabao Cup defeat at Fulham, the 30-year-old didn’t have the best of games and was duly substituted at half-time in south London.
Having trouble coming up against Jordan Ayew, Palace got a lot of joy down Spurs’ left flank and the Lilywhites needed the pace of Micky van de Ven on a couple of occasions to help out. The absence of Udogie was clear for all to see, with Davies unfortunately unable to offer the same kind of qualities as his Tottenham teammate.
Perhaps unfortunate to miss out on the starting XI after a decent showing in his time on the pitch on Monday evening, Emerson was introduced at the break and certainly looked more solid compared to Davies despite playing on his unnatural side.
Chipping in defensively to try and limit Ayew, the Brazil international, who joined from Barcelona for £26m two years ago, also looked to get forward and link up with those ahead of him as Tottenham tried to make things happen in the final third. Emerson’s numbers from the game (via FotMob) were very impressive as he helped out at the back by winning all three of his tackles, winning nine of his 12 duels and contributing with five recoveries and three clearances.
The player was also accurate with 29 of his 34 passes, two of his three long balls and successful with one of his two dribbles. All in all it was a very good display from the player and it was no surprise to see Postecoglou label him as “outstanding” when speaking to football.london in his post-match press conference.
Asked about Brennan Johnson’s impact from the bench as he registered an assist two minutes after his introduction, he said: “Yeah Brennan was great. He’s had to be patient as he’s had a couple of setbacks obviously so we haven’t really seen him in any consistent game time or training time but the last couple of weeks he’s worked hard at training.
“I thought all the subs who came on… I thought Pierre helped us get control of midfield, I thought Emerson at left-back was outstanding. Those kinds of things are helping us at the moment, the guys coming on and helping us see out games.”
Unfortunately not going to get the minutes he wants this season with Pedro Porro and Udogie excelling on either side, all the player can do right now is take his opportunity off the bench when it arrives and hope further game time comes his way as a result. That’s exactly what he did on Friday evening at Selhurst Park and he has done himself no harm at all when it comes to Postecoglou finding his best man to replace Udogie in the starting XI if he is ever missing again.
The left flank may not be Emerson’s natural side but he has demonstrated in his past two cameo appearances that he can more than do a job there for Tottenham if required.
