Roy Keane has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur duo Emerson Royal and Ben Davies are too ‘slow’.
Speaking on Sky Sports ahead of Tottenham’s clash against Aston Villa today, Keane raised concerns about Emerson Royal and Ben Davies.
Ange Postecoglou opted for a back four made up of full-backs against Villa, with Eric Dier dropping to the bench.
Royal and Davies started at centre-back, with Destiny Udogie back in the starting lineup following his one-game ban while Pedro Porro started at right-back.
Davies impressed last time out against Wolves and Royal was used at left-back. But Postecoglou opted to use the duo as a centre-back pairing today.
Yet, Roy Keane was unconvinced with the decision ahead of kick-off.
Keane says Royal and Davies are too slow
Speaking on Sky Sports, Keane claimed Villa’s frontline would fancy their chances against Royal and Davies due to a lack of pace.
He said: “If you look at the strikers and particularly the attacking players for Villa, they’ll be looking at that back four for Spurs and going ‘we do fancy our chances’ against two centre-halves, who I think are slow and ball-watch a lot.”
Royal and Davies were fairly solid in the first half as Spurs dominated the opening period.
Tottenham missed plenty of opportunities early on but eventually found a breakthrough as Giovani Lo Celso opened his account for the season.
But after wasting several openings, Villa hit Spurs against the run of play just before halftime as Pau Torres levelled things up.
Postecoglou’s men continued to dominate in the second half but were undone by an exceptional move from Villa on the hour mark.
Ollie Watkins produced a clinical finish and gave Spurs plenty to do with just half an hour left on the clock.