Arsenal star William Saliba started for France in their Nations League game against Belgium in Brussels.
The Frenchman is one of the best centre-halves in world football. There’s hardly anyone who is on his level right now, and he is among the first names on the team sheet for club and country in every game.
Didier Deschamps gave Saliba another international cap against Belgium on Monday night, but things didn’t quite go to plan for the Arsenal number two.
France’s media outlets are far from happy with how Saliba fared at the King Baudouin Stadium.
France’s media issue verdict on Arsenal star William Saliba’s performance
Saliba doesn’t usually have bad games, but his performance against Belgium on Monday night was arguably the worst we’ve seen from him.
Deschamps moved the Arsenal man to a left-centre-back role to accommodate Ibrahima Konate in the side, and that may have played a part in his poor display.
Saliba got caught on the ball on several occasions, made quite a few mistakes and even conceded a penalty after he slipped and took out Lois Openda in the box.
Konate was the one who played the RB Leipzig striker onside in that move, but an unlucky slip led to a penalty for Belgium. Luckily, Youri Tielemans missed it.
Then, in the second half, Openda got behind Saliba and headed home Belgium’s only goal. The Arsenal defender has come under criticism for that too.
So Foot gave Saliba a 2/10 rating – the worst among all his teammates. They wrote: “Penalty, (yellow) card, loss of ball… Fortunately, Openda ended up not taking advantage of his elastic marking before half-time because he would have felt obliged to score this goal himself.”
Dicodu Sport also rated him 2/10 and said: “There is a lot to say about his match and not much good. He undoubtedly had his worst match in Blue.
“He concedes the penalty for a foul on Lois Openda and receives a yellow card where he clearly does well (23rd). He leaves behind the same Loïs Openda on the Belgian equalizer. And where is he when Aurélien Tchouaméni has to sacrifice himself and take a red card… in the position of the last defender?!”
Finally, Eurosport gave him a 3/10 rating and wrote: “What a painful evening for the Arsenal defender… Saliba caused big problems for his defence with faulty alignment on too many Belgian transitions. On the action of the penalty, he not only mows down Openda, he also covers him.
“It is he, too, who loses the ball on the Belgian equalizer before forgetting the Leipzig striker behind his back. He still covers Tielemans (55th) on a dubious alignment. A loss of the ball which he could have done without (29th) and, overall, a very steep addition even if he cuts off a hot cross at the last minute (90th+5).”
Saliba’s stats vs Belgium
It’s a shame to see Saliba receive a lot of criticism for his performance.
The Frenchman is often so solid, but for one reason or another, he produced a really poor display against Belgium on Monday night.
In his 90 minutes on the pitch, Saliba had 82 touches of the ball and completed 65 passes. He lost possession on eight occasions and won just one of his four attempted duels.
As we said above, he conceded a penalty as well and also made an error that led to a shot.
Saliba did make four clearances, though (Sofascore), and he will be pleased that his poor performance did not lead to dropped points for Les Bleus, who won 2-1.
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