France manager Didier Deschamps has delivered his verdict on William Saliba’s performance against Austria in their Euro 2024 opener.
The Arsenal defender was given a surprise start on Monday night. Before the Euros, everyone expected Ibrahima Konate to get the nod, but Deschamps went with Saliba instead.
The 22-year-old started alongside Bayern Munich’s Dayot Upamecano, and the two defenders were solid for large parts of the game.
They helped France keep a clean sheet to pick up an important win against Austria, who made life incredibly difficult for Les Bleus at times.
Deschamps has now had his say on the two French central defenders.
Didier Deschamps shares what William Saliba ‘could improve’ after France vs Austria
Saliba has earned some praise from the French media for his performance against Austria.
The Arsenal star had a solid game. He was fantastic on the ball, completed all of his dribbles and even won possession more times than any other player on the pitch.
Saliba looked really good despite playing on the left side of central defence, but the fact that he hasn’t played there regularly did cause him a few problems.
One such instance came in the first half, when Saliba attempted an over-the-shoulder volley but that went straight to an Austrian player.
Upamecano too had a couple of shaky moments while clearing the ball when pressed, but like Saliba, he managed to come out of the game without any issues.
Deschamps was quizzed about his two central defenders after the game. He raved about the good things they did but highlighted one thing that Upamecano and Saliba ‘could improve’ on – their clearances!
He said in his post-match press conference, as quoted by GFFN: “If I decided to play William Saliba, it is because I thought he was more ready than Konate for such a match. But I don’t want to lose anyone either, we will need everyone.
“They (Saliba and Upamecano) have 120 minutes together for the France national team, it’s not a lot, but they have this ability to be very solid in one-on-one [situations], even if there were some clearances that they could improve on, they exuded a lot of strength and calmness.
“We needed that against such an opponent.”
The real reason behind Saliba’s mistakes
Saliba didn’t make too many mistakes, but Deschamps is right about how his two central defenders should do better with their clearances.
Against a better team than Austria, Saliba’s mistake in the first half could’ve proved costly, but thankfully for him, nothing came off it on Monday night.
However, Saliba deserves some slack because he was asked to play on the left side of central defence – a position he last consistently played in when he was on loan at Marseille.
At Arsenal, the Frenchman almost always plays on the right, but Saliba is more than capable of operating on the other side, and we’re sure he will get better in the coming games.
France take on the Netherlands next, and Saliba deserves to start that game after his performance on Monday night.