Cuti and Emerson 'stepping up and improving' - Nuno
Fri 29 October 2021, 16:10|
Tottenham Hotspur
Nuno Espirito Santo has been impressed with how Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal have continued to adapt to life in England and the Premier League.
The players arrived from Italy’s Serie A (Romero) and Spain’s La Liga (Royal) in August. Cristian has now played nine times in all competitions, Royal eight, and both caught the eye in our hard-fought 1-0 win at Burnley in the Carabao Cup in midweek - Cristian, alongside Davinson Sanchez, dealt superbly with Burnley’s late aerial onslaught while Royal delivered the cross for Lucas Moura's winner.
'Cuti' has particularly impressed in recent games against Villa, West Ham - what a battle against Michail Antonio, despite the 1-0 loss - and now at Turf Moor. He’s now likely to renew acquaintances with Cristiano Ronaldo as we face Manchester United on Saturday (5.30pm), the pair enjoyed a few tussles during Cuti’s time at Atalanta.
Speaking at his press conference on Friday, Nuno said: “I think he’s (Romero) improving, and two players who are stepping up and improving are Emerson and Cuti Romero, definitely.
“The Premier League is very demanding. They felt at the beginning the impact of the competition, but now they are settling down, and that’s what we need. Players who arrive (from a different country), as soon as they get the right adaptation, the talent is there, so they will be good for us.”
Nuno then told Spurs TV: “I think it’s normal when a player joins from a different league and comes to the Premier League, there is always an impact. The Premier League is very demanding, the opponents are good, all teams have very good players individually, so, as games go by, settling down, we can see Cuti and Emerson getting better.”
Nuno was also asked in his press conference to give one aspect that the team is improving and one where we need to improve.
He replied: “Possession, we’ve been able to increase our moments with the ball, and we need to improve when we have the ball in the final third to create better lines, better combinations that can finish in goals, chances, shots and crosses.
“We are improving being more compact, playing close to each other, possession has been good in terms of defensive aspects. We’ve been solid, set pieces caused us a problem in the Premier League game at West Ham, we improved against Burnley, defensively we were spot on. This is our work. Sometimes we improve things, sometimes things don’t go so well, and we go again.”
