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Emerson Royal

I fully admit, I haven't seen much of him. My opinion stems from my mate, who is a Barca fan who has watched him play for Betis a lot these past two seasons.

I had a long chat with him the day we were first linked, and the summary was essentially as you've outlined - aggressive player, strong guy, wins absolute tons of interceptions and tackles. Not the most rapid guy in the world - he's not quite at the level Walker was - but he's comfortably fast enough to keep pace with attackers, and faster than (for example) Trippier was. Has a decent cross on him, but his strength at Betis in an offensive sense was actually passing and cutbacks from the line, which makes sense given that they're a fairly short team.

He also said Emerson's a humble guy who's positive and works incredibly hard, on and off the field. Overall, he thinks the Prem is a perfect landing ground for the guy - this league's more about pace, power and commitment than intricate passing and tactical periodisation like in Spain, and he feels that suits Emerson's game down to the ground.

(Conversely, it's also why Trippier's done well in Spain, apparently - there are fewer physical matchups and more time's given to players to pick their passes, which is why Trippier's passing ability from deep really came to shine in his opinion. :) )

If he has weaknesses, it's that he dives in a lot, is a bit rash and is sometimes caught out in terms of positioning, but that's true of all young full-backs - hardly a deal breaker, unless they never grow out of it like Aurier.

And like you, I like Nuno's squad building so far. The thing is, our best periods under Poch came when we were the most dominant physical side in the league - in that last season at the Lane, you could visibly see us tower over our opponents, and we usually physically overpowered them in minutes with our high-pressing game, winning every duel and establishing dominance early. Led to some ludicrous scorelines that year.

That whole team was young, fit, fast and powerful -I've always wanted us to get back to that approach. It's simple, but imo, effective. Build a young, hungry, energetic team with a physical presence, who can also play a bit.

With our current squad, we're trending in that direction, and even physically slighter guys like Gil and Lo Celso seem (from early viewing) to be the types who relish going into challenges and fighting to get on the ball. So, good signs imo. :)
Nuno is fully into getting into the oppositions face when defending. Front foot defending. Aggressive defending. It’s how I love to see teams play. It will also mean our fitness will be less challenged over time as we’re not chasing around wasting energy
 
Nuno is fully into getting into the oppositions face when defending. Front foot defending. Aggressive defending. It’s how I love to see teams play. It will also mean our fitness will be less challenged over time as we’re not chasing around wasting energy

It’s a good point. We’re far less passive.

The big question is whether we can also add a possession game to our armoury; and improve our transition from defence (when a fast break is not on).


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
It’s a good point. We’re far less passive.

The big question is whether we can also add a possession game to our armoury; and improve our transition from defence (when a fast break is not on).


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
Why do we need possession?
We just need to score out chances and stop the opposition scoring
Our transition play so far under Nuno, and considering how little time he ahead had with the team is really good. We nearly alway get a high quality chance off it which is all you can ask.
 
It’s a good point. We’re far less passive.

The big question is whether we can also add a possession game to our armoury; and improve our transition from defence (when a fast break is not on).

Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

We already play a possession game, when we can.

And I think this is probably the core of Nuno vs. Poch & Jose, Nuno is pragmatic without being cynical (for want of a better word), we see value in possession (unlike Jose) and will try to keep it if we can but won't expose ourselves just to get it (perhaps like Poch would).
 
Why do we need possession?
We just need to score out chances and stop the opposition scoring
Our transition play so far under Nuno, and considering how little time he ahead had with the team is really good. We nearly alway get a high quality chance off it which is all you can ask.

xG of 1.06 vs. City, 1.73 vs. Wolves, 0.92 vs. Watford. Not sure you get those numbers by nearly always getting a high quality chance when transitioning?

Particularly vs. Wolves that's a bit low for my liking, and against teams that allow us more possession like they did we'll need the ability to create more and better chances in multiple phases of play I think.

Being clinical, scoring our chances, will only last up to a point and only take us part of the way to where we want to go. We have 9 points from 3.84 expected points. I think the attitude on here would be a bit different if we had 4 points instead of 9.

Luckily Nuno has been very clear that there's a lot of improvement he'd like to see.

(stats from understat)
 
xG of 1.06 vs. City, 1.73 vs. Wolves, 0.92 vs. Watford. Not sure you get those numbers by nearly always getting a high quality chance when transitioning?

Particularly vs. Wolves that's a bit low for my liking, and against teams that allow us more possession like they did we'll need the ability to create more and better chances in multiple phases of play I think.

Being clinical, scoring our chances, will only last up to a point and only take us part of the way to where we want to go. We have 9 points from 3.84 expected points. I think the attitude on here would be a bit different if we had 4 points instead of 9.

Luckily Nuno has been very clear that there's a lot of improvement he'd like to see.

(stats from understat)

Wolves is a very hard side to play (and look good), they make life difficult but often the big picture tells the truth, we won three games, they lost three, that's not luck.

I'd also say Watford is the only game we started Kane in, huge consideration when commenting on our attacking potential
 
Wolves is a very hard side to play (and look good), they make life difficult but often the big picture tells the truth, we won three games, they lost three, that's not luck.

I'd also say Watford is the only game we started Kane in, huge consideration when commenting on our attacking potential

Agreed on Wolves being a really good team and difficult to play. xG for that game was fine imo.

Don't think three games is the big picture, I think it's a small sample size.

I agree on Kane, for sure. Still think we need to improve our chance creation from other phases of play than counter attacking.
 
I'd be interested in seeing Aurier's pre-Mourinho.
Fortunately the Athletic also posted that image last year... Posted the 2 together.
upload_2021-9-1_19-45-3-png.12643

upload_2021-9-2_14-0-22.png

I cannot find any earlier charts however I've found a link that has more info on a season by season basis but not with the same layout.

https://fbref.com/en/players/5c2b4f07/scout/1631/Serge-Aurier-Scouting-Report
 
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I'm guessing you're trying to be funny, right? Beacause all of that is wrong. The only people that speak the equivalent of Queens English lisp. Also Spanish and Portuguese are the same language in the same way that English and German is.

No mention of Chrissie Waddle and the obligatory sausage factory but my guess is that he was trying to be funny, with the joke being on the infamously insular English.
 
xG of 1.06 vs. City, 1.73 vs. Wolves, 0.92 vs. Watford. Not sure you get those numbers by nearly always getting a high quality chance when transitioning?

Particularly vs. Wolves that's a bit low for my liking, and against teams that allow us more possession like they did we'll need the ability to create more and better chances in multiple phases of play I think.

Being clinical, scoring our chances, will only last up to a point and only take us part of the way to where we want to go. We have 9 points from 3.84 expected points. I think the attitude on here would be a bit different if we had 4 points instead of 9.

Luckily Nuno has been very clear that there's a lot of improvement he'd like to see.

(stats from understat)

there actually good numbers
Look at united’s vs Wolves for comparison… 0.85. This is a United side that are meant to be a favourite for the title. We did twice as good then

Expected points is based on what?
How does possession relate to Xg
 
there actually good numbers
Look at united’s vs Wolves for comparison… 0.85. This is a United side that are meant to be a favourite for the title. We did twice as good then

Expected points is based on what?
How does possession relate to Xg

Whatever United are supposed to be they were second best against Wolves by all reports, I'm not sure that's a great comparison.

I agree that the xG for Wolves was good. Probably our best one so far all things considered, it was a game where we could play a highly counter attacking style, we're good at that, we've been good at that, we'll continue to be good at that.

Possession doesn't relate to xG in any way directly at least as far as I know.

My point is more that we need to be able to produce good xG numbers (chances) in games where we dominate possession as a result of teams playing low or medium to low blocks. Quite a few teams will set up like that anyway. Parts of even more games will look like that.

If we're great on the break, but not good against low blocks teams will adjust to that and we'll become easier to play against and results will suffer.

Based on xG we don't win that game against Watford nearly often enough for my liking. That has to improve to reach our targets I think, just like it had to last season (and didn't).
 
Whatever United are supposed to be they were second best against Wolves by all reports, I'm not sure that's a great comparison.

I agree that the xG for Wolves was good. Probably our best one so far all things considered, it was a game where we could play a highly counter attacking style, we're good at that, we've been good at that, we'll continue to be good at that.

Possession doesn't relate to xG in any way directly at least as far as I know.

My point is more that we need to be able to produce good xG numbers (chances) in games where we dominate possession as a result of teams playing low or medium to low blocks. Quite a few teams will set up like that anyway. Parts of even more games will look like that.

If we're great on the break, but not good against low blocks teams will adjust to that and we'll become easier to play against and results will suffer.

Based on xG we don't win that game against Watford nearly often enough for my liking. That has to improve to reach our targets I think, just like it had to last season (and didn't).
Watford IMO created so little
We created plenty
I watched moTD and listened on the radio and we controlled the game and had all the good chances IMO
A few years ago they battered us at home and their was a penalty not given against jan was was a poor call.
We’re clearly (IMO) much much fitter this season too which’s means we can see out games well and quite comfortably so far
 
Based on xG we don't win that game against Watford nearly often enough for my liking. That has to improve to reach our targets I think, just like it had to last season (and didn't).

So I understand the point, but just using the Watford game as example

- What chance do you think they realistically should have converted?
- For us, Kane and Dele missed absolute sitters, Son hit at least two strait at the keeper, a couple went strait across the goal.

This is my problem with xG, that game easily could have ended 3-0 or 4-0 on chances we all saw with our eyes (how often does Kane miss sitters? how many of those Son hits end up in the corner of the net?)
 
So I understand the point, but just using the Watford game as example

- What chance do you think they realistically should have converted?
- For us, Kane and Dele missed absolute sitters, Son hit at least two strait at the keeper, a couple went strait across the goal.

This is my problem with xG, that game easily could have ended 3-0 or 4-0 on chances we all saw with our eyes (how often does Kane miss sitters? how many of those Son hits end up in the corner of the net?)
That’s the big issue
XG doesn’t take into account quality of player or opposition
Just location of shot
Also doesn’t account for defensive actions to put you off
 
That’s the big issue
XG doesn’t take into account quality of player or opposition
Just location of shot
Also doesn’t account for defensive actions to put you off
Sounds like a rather limited metric.
Presumably doesn't account for shot quality or shooter?
 
I'm guessing you're trying to be funny, right? Beacause all of that is wrong. The only people that speak the equivalent of Queens English lisp. Also Spanish and Portuguese are the same language in the same way that English and German is.

Spanish is closer to Italian than it is Portuguese
 
Spanish is closer to Italian than it is Portuguese

It's an interesting one

- Spanish and Portuguese written down are quite similar
- Spoken they sound very different

And of course that's just Castilian Spanish and Portuguese in Portugal (as vs. the South American variations of both)
 
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