Ange Postecoglou's Emerson Royal dilemma and the Tottenham alternative he ignored vs Liverpool
Emerson Royal had a day to forget as Tottenham slipped to a fourth successive Premier League defeat. Having lost against Newcastle United, Arsenal and Chelsea recently, Liverpool inflicted even more misery on Spurs by winning 4-2 at Anfield.
Like Tottenham, the Reds had come into the game not in the best of form but they returned to winning ways with Ange Postecoglou's side handing them some real gifts inside the first 60 minutes of the contest. Having started brightly and gone close through Mohamed Salah and Harvey Elliott, it was the former who opened the scoring in the 16th minute with a header at the back post.
It was all too easy for the Egyptian to score as he was left unmarked in the six-yard box with Emerson not tracking his run. The Brazilian was guilty of watching the ball when Cody Gakpo was in possession down Liverpool's left and that allowed Salah to ghost in behind him and convert his teammate's cross.
Always going to be an incredibly tough afternoon for Emerson coming up against Salah and with Trent Alexander-Arnold always looking to bomb on, the full-back did notably help his team out on a couple of occasions with a fine tackle on Salah when he was through on goal before then getting a crucial block to the right-back's rasping drive from distance.
Liverpool were getting so much joy down their right flank, with Tottenham not doing enough to try and protect Emerson, who was playing in an unnatural position, during his pitch time. Things then came to a head at half-time with Guglielmo Vicario needing to come between Emerson and Cristian Romero as they became embroiled in a heated argument seconds after the referee had sounded his whistle.
It was something Postecoglou was asked about in his post-match press
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