William Saliba has enjoyed a strong start to the season with Arsenal, but it’s safe to say it has been a mixed bag for him during the international break with France.
Having replaced the injured Jules Kounde in the 23rd minute against Austria last Thursday, the 21-year-old carried his club form into the game as he helped Les Bleus keep a clean sheet and afterward was heavily praised by Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe on Instagram.
However, it was more of a struggle for Saliba on Sunday night against Denmark as, in the absence of Manchester United’s Raphael Varane, he made his fourth start for the France national team – although, after a less than convincing 45 minutes, the Arsenal defender was hauled off at half-time alongside Real Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga.
As explained by Didier Deschamps, the reason behind his decision to withdraw the two youngsters at the break was because of their inexperience and the France manager appeared to hint at his squad selection plan for the winter World Cup.
Read Also:
“I don’t think it’s a shipwreck, we also had a lot of chances but we were ineffective, we made some errors when playing out from the back,” Deschamps told TF1 after the game. “It’s a young French side, where the majority of the players don’t have experience at the very highest level.
“It’s not a question of formations, but when you have four corners and a Danish player is left alone each time, you can play with three, five or twelve at the back, it doesn’t change a thing. There’s no need to worry, the fact that the players with international experience are coming back will do us good.
“There were four in a row [where they put us in trouble]. Maybe it was a bit of naivety on our part, and Denmark played well by making blocks but it shouldn’t have happened. There are recurring situations. There were three times where Thomas Delaney and Andreas Christensen alone were free. At the top level that gets punished.”
In terms of experienced France central defenders who were unavailable for the UEFA Nations League double-header, the list includes PSG’s Presnel Kimpembe and Bayern Munich’s Lucas Hernandez, whilst Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate is two years older than Saliba but only has two senior caps to his name.
Furthermore, with reports in Spain claiming Kounde’s hamstring injury shouldn’t rule him out of the World Cup, Deschamps’ comments regarding experience may indicate that Saliba is likely to be a squad option rather than a starter in Qatar if he’s included in the final 26-man travelling party.
