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Emerson Royal insight: Scouting report, stats, transfer rating and more

By Rohit Rajeev -

AC Milan got their third signing of the summer transfer window over the line earlier this week as the official announcement of Emerson Royal’s arrival came.

The move was talked about for weeks and was confirmed on Monday night. It was also announced that he will be under contract with the Rossoneri until June 30, 2028 and there is an option for another year after that.

The 25-year-old right-back was pursued by Milan for much of the summer transfer window but the two clubs struggled to agree on the transfer fee. However, Fonseca has finally got the reinforcement he wanted, and he will challenge Davide Calabria for a starting spot.

There are some concerns about the fact the arrives after a down year with Spurs, so what can fans expect from Emerson Royal? Our writer Rohit Rajeev has done a deep dive.

Background

Born in São Paulo (Brazil) on 14 January 1999, Emerson Royal started his career playing youth football for Ponte Preta, with whom he made his first-team debut in February 2017.

He made 25 appearances and scored one goal for them, and just a year after his debut he joined Atlético Mineiro in 2018, where he made 23 appearances and one goal before attracting interest from Europe.

Emerson made his debut for the club on 19 May 2018, not long after turning 19, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 victory over rivals Cruzeiro. His first top flight goal came on 30 September of that year.

His performances quickly attracted interest from Europe and on the final day of the January window in 2019 Atlético announced the transfer of Emerson to Barcelona, which would become effective as of July 2019, for €12.7m (via Wiki).

Emerson Royal has been presented officially like new player of the Barça

The intriguing thing was that it involved Barcelona and fellow LaLiga side Real Betis, meaning each club paid half of the transfer fee and retained a percentage of Emerson’s economic rights. Betis got him in July 2019, but Barcelona held the option to pay €6m to reacquire him in 2021.

The full-back became a regular starter for the Andalusian club and that season he notched nine goal contributions in 34 appearances. When June 2021 came around, Barca used their option to sign him, though he wouldn’t be staying there.

On the final day of the 2021 summer window, Spurs signed Emerson on a five-year deal for a reported €30m fee. He scored his first goal for the London club in a 5–1 home win against Newcastle United, but in October 2022 he was sent off in the North London Derby for a foul on Gabriel Martinelli.

Royal established himself as a starter under Antonio Conte, but then when he left and Ange Postecoglou arrived – as well as Pedro Porro from Sporting CP – he ended up playing mostly as a back-up.

He filled in as a starter at left-back and centre-back as well due to an injury crisis, but by the end of the 2023-24 campaign he was a bit-part player and this led to widespread suggestions that he would depart for pastures new.

In terms of his international exploits, Emerson was first spotted by Brazil and called up for the U20 team for the 2017 Toulon Tournament. He was the main right-back at the 2019 South American U20 Championship and the 2019 Toulon Tournament, winning the latter with the U23s.

He finally made his senior international debut for his country on 19 November 2019, coming off the bench in a 3–0 victory over South Korea. Further call-ups came in May 2021, then he was summoned for the Copa América, making his major tournament tournament debut on 17 June.

Since then, the defender has made six appearances for his country to reach 10 in total, with three of those being in 2023 and the most recent being in November of that year, when he played 90 minutes in a 1-0 loss to Argentina.

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Strengths and weaknesses

With Milan looking for a upgrade over Calabria, Royal has been a target of Geoffrey Moncada’s for quite a while, with the links even dating back to his days at Real Betis. Standing tall at 1.81m tall and weighing 76kg, he is not one to be bullied and has good physical traits.

When most of his minutes coming with Real Betis in the 2019-20 season, Emerson 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.

Emerson’s main job was to lead the press on the right flank or help in the counter pressing when Betis lost the ball. This often led him to be high up the pitch.

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At Tottenham, Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked within nine games and Conte came in, which in turn meant going back to the wing-back role in a 3-4-3 with Dejan 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 centre as an inverted wingback and playing alongside the half-spaces.

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Under Postecoglou, he was more used as a centre-back than at right-back with the Greek-Australian preferring Porro’s attacking output over Emerson’s defensive solidity. Now we understand the roles he can play, let’s look at some of his traits.

A defensive trait that is vital for any defender – especially a full-back – is how good they are in 1v1 situations, and this is an area where the Brazilian often excels.

Emerson uses his upper body physicality explicitly well to block runners and those trying to beat him, which again helps with how he is able to cope in isolation.

Standing at a height of 1.81m (1.83m according to some sources), he is always handy to make clearing headers when defending set pieces, and this is an area that Milan need to address.

If Emerson is beaten he has the pace and timing to get the ball back by making recovery tackles, as he does – against Erling Haaland no less – in the clip below.

Emerson likes to use his synergise his tactical intelligence and his big frame to intercept balls or block shots or crosses, which is a large part of his defensive game.

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Emerson meanwhile has the pace to close down space quickly and therefore 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, his first instinct is to go for the safest passing option if that means making back passes. He tries to do one-twos with his team-mates to advance the ball and play out of the opposition’s pressing.

Royal’s attacking 1v1’s are not the best, or rather should we say he chooses to keep it simple. Rather than surging past his man like Theo Hernandez often does, he looks for passes to ensure that possession is maintained.

Lapses of concentration are his worst enemy. There are unfortunately quite a few occasions where Emerson’s gaffes or lack of awareness regarding what is going on around him have led to big chances and even goals.

To go a bit deeper beyond the strengths and shortcomings, it feels as if Emerson has been profiled incorrectly by fans and the media who think he is a modern full-back. Unlike Theo, he is not someone who will burst forward and join the attack and dribble past players.

In the friendlies in the preseason tour, Fonseca showed he wanted to play a three at the back when in possessions with Filippo Terracciano playing as the third centre-back alongside Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw/another central defender.

Postecoglou recognised this and used him more as a centre-back, so while Milan cannot expect him to play as an attacking defender and spam crosses, he can provide defensive solidity especially against teams that play attacking football. The problem arises when teams in Italy like to stay in deep blocks and try to play for a draw.

Emerson is someone that can do well if Fonseca tries can play as an inverted full-back to try and recycle possession. If the coach adjusts his tactics to make space accordingly Emerson can thrive because he is more than capable of taking part in teams that like to play the positional game and use passing combinations.

As per various reports, Emerson Royal employed a neuroscientist Dr. Fabiano de Abreu Agrela to help improve his game on the psychological aspects while investing close to £1m on hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

He also employed scouts to study Achraf Hakimi’s style of play to mirror him while Conte was still the coach of Tottenham. It was a measure appreciated by Conte a lot who praised his work and spoke about how he improved from the season before.

Statistical comparison

Having conducted an analysis of Emerson and his data in comparison with other defenders he clearly seems to be ahead in terms of defensive numbers compared to other players in his position in Serie A.

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We have mentioned how much of a battling full-back he is, but to further prove the point there was a great stat from Opta. Since his arrival at Spurs in 2021-22, only Rayan Aït-Nouri (7.5) has won more duels than Emerson Royal (6.9) on average per 90 minutes among defenders in the Premier League (minimum 4500 minutes played).

FBRef provide a comparison between Emerson Royal and every full-back across the ‘top five’ European Leagues plus the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League over the past 365 days.

Their data shows that he is in the 96th percentile (better than 95% of others) for Passes Completed, the 99th for Pass Completion % (90.3%), the 91st for Tackles, the 94th for Tackles Won and the 94th for Dribblers Tackled.

He is in the 93rd percentile for Blocks, the 98th for Shots Blocked, the 95th for Interceptions and the 99th for Clearances. The Brazilian is in the 98th percentile for Touches, the 94th for Carries and the 79th for Aerial Duels Won.

Conclusion

Fonseca in his first press conference spoke about a need for balance from the full-backs as Italian football is quite different from France, as he learned in his Roma stint. With Milan fans asking for an upgrade over Calabria, an ‘old flame’ for Moncada in the form of Emerson Royal has arrived and it feels like Milan have got their target.

He may not be a glamorous name, but he has attributes that if harnessed properly could make him a good fit for the league and also for the Rossoneri.

Transfer rating: 7/10

Tags AC Milan Emerson Royal

9 Comments

  1. i dont like this signing much but i feel people were overeacting a bit, yes he isnt better than calabria but and he probaly isnt what most of the fans wanted but no that he is her we got to support him

  2. He’ll be pretty good. I wanted someone else, but he has my full support. So far I like what I see this summer! We do need a few exits now though.

  3. Milan is at a point where it’s going to sign average and slightly above average players at a bargain and hope to get the best out of them and unlock their potential. A money ball approach and I personally love it.

  4. Cmon guys not every signing is a 7 or 8/10

    This is a 6 at best. The guy was good at Betis but poor at Spurs. He’s not like Pavlovic or Fofana ie an obvious upgrade for the 1st XI

    Squad rotation with Calabria sure, it’s a 6/10

    1. He was fine until spurs changed managers. No different than Puli at chelsea. New teams and managers can make or break players

      1. That just tells you that he isn’t versatile. When we change coaches, and we will at some point, will we also need to sell him? Search for a rb again?

        And puli situation was very different.

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