Arsenal star William Saliba has been a star at Euro 2024.
Nine players on the Gunners’ books travelled to Germany with their respective national teams for the European championships, and many have had mixed tournaments.
Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice have come under a bit of criticism for their performances for England, while Leandro Trossard had a disappointing group stage for Belgium.
The most heartbreaking incident so far was to see Kieran Tierney get stretchered off the pitch due to an injury.
On the flip side, one player has enjoyed some great success – Saliba. The defender has been outstanding for France in their three games in the group stage.
William Saliba beats every Euro 2024 player in one key stat
Before Euro 2024 began, not many people expected Saliba to start for France.
Didier Deschamps had always been reluctant to pick Saliba and often opted for Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate instead.
That made many believe that the Arsenal defender would only be on the bench for large parts of the European Championships in Germany this summer.
However, Deschamps made a U-turn on his decision about Saliba, and the 23-year-old has started every single game at the Euros so far.
The Arsenal star has been absolutely incredible for Les Bleus, so much so that several French media outlets have raved about Saliba following his performances.
France are through to the next round of Euro 2024, and they will face Belgium, where Saliba will come up against his Arsenal teammate Trossard.
Ahead of that big game, an extraordinary stat about the French defender has emerged following his performances in the group stage.
Whoscored reveal that Saliba recorded the best pass success rate – 96.5 per cent – of any player at Euro 2024 in the first round of the competition.
That is simply incredible!
Micah Richards has noticed a flaw in Saliba’s game
Saliba has arguably been the best centre-back at Euro 2024 so far.
The Frenchman has been asked to play on the left side of central defence, which is a bit unusual for him as he has almost always played on the opposite for Arsenal over the last two seasons. He did, however, play there for Marseille when he was on loan.
Saliba has done magnificently well for France on the left side, and his pass success rate shows he is absolutely unbelievable on the ball.
Micah Richards noticed how Saliba always looks for the perfect pass, which could land him in trouble if he doesn’t get it right.
That happened a couple of times against Austria in France’s opening game, which prompted Richards to tell Saliba to stop with the perfect pass and just boot the ball out of the park.
“Because’s so good on the ball, he always wants to make the perfect pass, but sometimes you just have to lump into row-Z,” Richards said before admitting that Saliba is ‘becoming one of the best defenders in Europe’.
Arteta has Arsenal stars in Marbella whilst Bukayo Saka struggles at Euro 2024
In this week’s episode, Will Jones and Rahul Lakhani discussed England’s recent poor performances at the European Championships. With Arsenal players Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka receiving mixed reviews for England so far, Gareth Southgate’s tactical decisions were questioned.
There was some talk about the members of the Arsenal squad currently on a surprise training camp with Mikel Arteta in Marbella, as well as a brief look at how Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli are getting on at the Copa America with Brazil.