AC Milan’s player acquisitions from the Premier League over the last few years have been interesting and excellent.

This includes the signings of Fikayo Tomori, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Olivier Giroud.

This summer, the Italian club signed Emerson Royal from Spurs—a signing that could be said to be against their recent model of player recruitment, but what will the 25-year-old defender bring to the club?

Emerson played mainly on the left side of defence last season as a left-back, but his primary position is at right-back or right wing-back.

The defender missed many games last term due to injury and fell down the pecking order after the arrival of Pedro Porro.

Emerson Royal Scouting Report

The below visualisation shows where Emerson ranked for some of the key metrics last season compared with the other left-backs from Europe’s top five leagues.

Emerson, a Brazil international, is what you call a defence-first player.

Although not very good on the ball, which is one reason why he lost his place in the starting XI, the full-back is aggressive when pressing and clocks a lot of defensive actions—ranking in the 68th percentile for defensive duels per 90 minutes.

Royal’s defensive positioning and awareness are good, putting him in the top 10% for tackles, blocks, and interceptions.

Emerson’s offensive game needs improvement, and he is not involved in many actions in the attacking third.

Emerson Royal is a different profile to what Milan currently have, but he is someone who can pair well with Theo Hernández on the opposite side.

After a steady decline in the Premier League, Emerson has a fresh start this summer and will want to help Milan win the Scudetto again.

If Emerson can be available for Milan to rely on him, his career could suddenly be back on track.