You have to wonder if Deschamps is playing mind games and he had planned to start Saliba all along against Austria because his past comments suggested that he wasn’t going to do that.
The Arsenal man helped his team secure a clean sheet and record an opening win, with N’Golo Kante winning Man of the Match for his performance.
Saliba is used to having that strong defensive-minded midfielder in front of him. Whether it’s Thomas Partey or most recently Declan Rice.
And even though Kante is playing in the Saudi Pro League, he is proving that class is permanent because he rolled back the years against Austria.
William Saliba missed out on the Premier League title with Arsenal this season.
But at Euro 2024 with France, with his side one of the favourites, he is hoping to win his first major trophy as a player and earn that first taste of what it’s like to become a champion.
When you watch William Saliba play in his ice-cool and, even at times, arrogant style, you just feel that his career is going to be littered with trophies and something would have to go seriously wrong if it didn’t.
If Mikel Arteta is to end Arsenal’s two decade wait to become champions of England, then Saliba is going to have to play a huge part.
And if France want to add the European Championships to their World Cup crown, then you feel they will need someone like Saliba performing at his very best.
But manager Didier Deschamps hasn’t always seen in that way and has even stated that there are ‘things about Saliba’s game I don’t like’, which pleased a certain Roy Keane.
Ian Wright was discussing that as Saliba was named in the starting XI for France’s opening Euro 2024 win over Austria on Monday.
The legendary striker labelled it ‘really strange’ and stated that he just ‘couldn’t understand’ why the France manager would speak in such a way, as he told ITV Sport.
Saliba has earned 15 caps for his country, but he hasn’t always been a regular, with Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konaté and Bayern Munich’s Dayot Upamecano previously preferred.
William Saliba criticised by Didier Deschamps
“I couldn’t understand why he said that,” said Wright. “Simply because, the way France play, they play that mid-block.
“They don’t want William Saliba and what he does for Arsenal. He progresses the ball and he passes the ball. He gets the ball going for them. He is there for his one-on-one play. So, I was thinking it was really strange to hear him say that he can’t see something with him, because he does that and he has the capability to deal with a one-v-one situation, which France play like.
“I would like to think he has had a word with him. Just to come out publicly and say that when he is playing well for Arsenal.”
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