Tottenham is currently facing a crisis in defence.
Spurs don’t have a single capable senior central defender to choose from at the moment, so they have to use Ben Davies and Emerson Roy as temporary central defenders.
Clinton Morrison spoke to Sky Sports about Spurs’ current problems in defence and focused on Emerson Royal’s recent performances in the centre of defence.
Morrison says that he is far from convinced by the Brazilian at centre-back, claiming that he sometimes looks very uncomfortable when he is in charge of the defence.
Morrison shared his judgement on the recent performances of the £26 million player.
“I agree that I think Emerson Royal is a right-sided defender, I’ve watched him at times and he’s struggled. Emerson Royal is not a central defender, he is a right wing-back, when you see him defending sometimes, he doesn’t look like he is comfortable as a central defender,”
I cannot blame him:
Morrison is right, Emerson doesn’t look quite right when he has to play at centre-back, but can you really blame him?
Let’s not forget that Emerson played as a wing-back in Antonio Conte’s system for most of last season, and playing in the centre-half position under Ange Postecoglou is a completely different job in every possible way.
Emerson has done a good job at central defender in recent weeks, but he is nowhere near the level of players like Cristian Romero or Micky Van de Ven, and the longer this goes on, the more likely it is that Spurs will drop points.
Tottenham are still in a very good position to qualify for promotion and maybe even win the Premier League title, but if they want to reach the next level they need to get their first defensive alliance back on the pitch as soon as possible.