'I just noticed' - Alasdair Gold thinks Spurs players don't want to pass 23 y/o the ball

Tottenham Hotspur journalist Alasdair Gold has noticed a recent pattern in the Spurs squad during matchday, with some of the players looking to avoid passing the ball to Emerson Royal. 

The Spurs correspondent was speaking on his YouTube channel following the north London club’s defeat in the FA Cup on Tuesday night.

Royal came on at the Riverside Stadium on Tuesday night just before the end of the regulation time and did not exactly impress Gold, who was reporting from the press box.

Having come on for 39 minutes, the Brazilian failed to deliver an accurate cross and was unable to register a successful tackle against Middlesbrough (via SofaScore).

And Gold believes he noticed on Tuesday night that a number of Spurs players weren’t looking to pass the ball in the direction of the 23-year-old, potentially because of the slow start he has made in England:

Gold said: “You actually see at times – I don’t know whether I’m being too harsh again or maybe I’m just seeing things – but I felt that players sometimes aren’t passing him the ball, because they don’t feel like it’s going to come back to a Spurs shirt.

“I could be being horrendously over the top there. And I’m sorry if I am, but I just noticed that just a couple of occasions where passes weren’t played out to him.”

TIF Thoughts on Emerson’s start at Spurs…

We think the Brazilian has made an extremely underwhelming start to life in north London, having arrived in the summer for a fee believed to be in the region of £26m.

Across his 33 appearances in all competitions, Royal has only been able to provide one assist, and it has become apparent that Antonio Conte has not been left impressed with the former Barcelona man.

And we think the right wing-back position has to be