Ryan Mason has lauded the performance of Emerson Royal as Tottenham Hotspur beat Crystal Palace on Saturday, claiming that the Brazilian was ‘outstanding’.
The Tottenham boss was speaking – in comments reported by Football London – after Spurs clinched a narrow victory against the Eagles, with Harry Kane scoring the only goal of the contest.
The game saw Emerson Royal make his first Premier League appearance since mid-March. He was not even on the bench for the dramatic defeat to Liverpool.
Ryan Mason lauds Emerson Royal after Tottenham win
Ryan Mason played the 24-year-old, as well as Pedro Porro. And that resulted in Emerson playing as a third center-back or a right-back, and Porro playing further forward. It was the latter who set up Kane for the goal.
It was certainly a brilliant display from Emerson. And when asked about his performance, Mason did not really hold back in his praise.
“Yeah, he was outstanding. I thought the whole team without the ball worked hard, they worked together. And obviously, Eme has had a period out. But I trust him. We trust him. And I thought today he did a very good job along with the rest of the players on the pitch,” he said, as reported by Football London.
“When you keep a clean sheet it’s a collective, it’s everyone and everyone fought for the clean sheet. The players on the pitch but also the ones who didn’t because in the training week, we’ve all worked hard together and they’re the results you want.”
Emerson was given a tough task, trying to contain Wilfried Zaha. And he largely did a good job up against the Ivory Coast international, restricting him to one really good attempt which left Fraser Forster scrambling.
Emerson’s form since the turn of the year has definitely been one of the main positives in a disappointing season for Tottenham.
For much of his spell, the defender had been written off. Certainly, he seemed to be nowhere near good enough going forward to be a wing-back in Antonio Conte’s system.
However, his form before his injury suggested that he could indeed perform that role. He managed to really step up just as Pedro Porro arrived.
And it was a big blow to lose him to injury. But he is now back. And he looks ready to pick up where he left off.
Leave a Reply