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Arsenal's poor performances since the Premier League restart have highlighted their defensive frailties and the need for better centre-backs. Arsenal have a personnel problem at the back. Their season has been marred by a slew of individual errors by the likes of David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac. In the North London Derby versus Tottenham.
Sead Kolasinac committed the cardinal sin of gifting Heung Min Son a goal seconds after Alexandre Lacazette opened the scoring. Similarly, against Manchester City, David Luiz put in one of the worst individual performances by an Arsenal player in the Premier League. He failed to clear the ball for Raheem Sterling's opener and was later sent off for bringing down Riyad Mahrez in the penalty box.
Arsenal later announced that David Luiz signed a 1-year contract extension with the club. But it is clear that the 33-year-old Brazilian is not the answer to Arsenal's defensive woes.
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The remaining Arsenal centre-backs - Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Rob Holding and Calum Chambers do not inspire much confidence either. Arsenal do need urgent reinforcements at the back, and one of them will be arriving next season in the form of William Saliba.
Saliba signed for Arsenal in the summer of 2019 for £27 million from Saint Etienne but was loaned back immediately for the season. A year later, the Frenchman will finally arrive in North London, and Arsenal need him now more than ever. But who is this 19-year-old Frenchman? What can we expect from him, and what is all the hype about?
The journey of Arsenal's new centre-back William Saliba
William Saliba was born in Bondy on the outskirts of Paris. At age six, he started playing for local side AS Bondy.
The fabled Bondy academy is known to have produced players like Kylian Mbappe and Lille’s Jonathan Ikone. Saliba was coached by Mbappe’s father Wilfried Mbappe, and he even went to the same primary school as the PSG starlet.
Saliba started as a midfielder, which helped improve his technical ability, but he eventually shifted to centre-back when he joined FC Montfermeil in 2014. Two years later, he joined Saint Etienne and immediately made an impact with the youth and reserve teams. That led to him signing his first professional contract at only 17.
In his debut campaign in 2018/19 with Les Verts, coach Jean Louis Gasset eased Saliba into the side and asked him to model his game on the likes of Raphael Varane and Thiago Silva. Saliba only made 13 league appearances in the season but played a key role in Saint Etienne's good form in the latter half of that campaign.
With Saliba on the field, Saint Etienne lost only one of their last ten games and clinched fourth in Ligue 1, their joint highest league finish in over three decades. In the summer, Saliba's signature was chased by most clubs in Europe, but Arsenal eventually secured his services.
Arsenal signed him on a 5-year deal under the stipulation that he would be loaned back to Saint Etienne for the 2019/20 season.
Saliba's sophomore season with Saint Etienne, however, was ravaged by injuries. He suffered a hamstring injury in the summer before injuring his fifth metatarsal in November 2019.
Nevertheless, he did have a positive influence on the side, and that can be seen by their performances when he was not playing.
Saint Etienne played 17 league games in 2019 without Saliba; they won only four of those, losing eight and drawing the remaining five. They did not have any clean sheets in that span and conceded 29 goals at a rate of 1.71 per game. Out of the total of 51 points on offer, Les Verts picked up only 17.
These numbers, however, vastly improved when the big French centre-back was in the team. In 2019, in the 14 league games Saint Etienne played with Saliba in the lineup, they won 11, drew one and lost the other two.
In these 14 games, they only conceded six times, doing so at a rate of 0.43 per game while keeping 10 clean sheets in this period. They also picked up an incredible 34 out of the 42 points on offer.
While this was a small sample size and all of Saint Etienne's success wasn't solely due to the presence of the new Arsenal signing, it was obvious that Saliba did have a positive influence on the side. Even after returning from injury, Saliba was immensely important in Saint Etienne’s run to the final of the Coupe de France where they are set to face PSG on the 24th of July.
In the semifinal against Stadde Rennais, Saliba was magnificent, laying two assists that included a 94th-minute winner, that sent Les Verts to the final.
William Saliba's Style of Play
William Saliba is a ball-playing centre-back who is comfortable playing in a back-4 as well as a back-3. He is is the archetype of a modern Centre-back and is strong, athletic and pacy.
Saliba is an intelligent player, and his positioning is one of the key attributes to his game that allows him to be in the right place at the right time to get the ball without committing fouls. His tackling is also impressive.
Among all center-backs in Europe’s top five leagues that have played more than 900 minutes this season, Saliba has the highest true tackle success rate too. True tackle success rate looks at the normal tackle success rate while also factoring in fouls made while recovering the ball. Hence this metric shows how effective Arsenal's newest recruit is when tackling.
Saliba is also good on the ball and can easily glide past incoming pressure. Add to that his incredible passing range and pass accuracy, and Arsenal have a very promising centre-back in their roster.
One area of weakness, though, is his heading. Despite his 6'3 height and huge frame, he is not as adept at defending balls in the air and isn’t as big an aerial threat in the opposition box as he should be. He has acknowledged that this area of his game is a work in progress. As he plays more regularly in the Premier League, this facet of his game will improve over time.
How William Saliba compares with Arsenal's other centre-backs?
So how does William Saliba compare with the rest of Arsenal's centre-backs? Let's take a look at some stats for this season to have a look at the same.
Saliba attempts 1.73 tackles per 90, which is more than the likes of Sokratis (1.33), David Luiz (1.22) and Shkodran Mustafi (1.16). Also, thanks to his pace, Saliba makes the most recoveries per 90; the Frenchman averages 7.63 recoveries compared to Luiz's 4.65, Sokratis' 3.77 and Mustafi's 3.34.
The Frenchman is better than his Arsenal defensive counterparts at intercepting the ball. He has made 1.91 interceptions per 90 compared to Luiz (1.07), Sokratis (0.9) and Mustafi (1.89).
His pace and athleticism also make him incredibly difficult to get past. Saliba has been dribbled past only 0.45 times per 90 compared with Luiz (0.53), Mustafi (0.67) and Sokratis (0.74).
As stated earlier, Saliba's heading and aerial ability may be a weakness, though. He averages only 4.63 aerial duels per 90 which is more than that of David Luiz (3.05) but less than the likes of Sokratis (4.61) and Mustafi (7.26).
The Frenchman's aerial duel success rate of 63% is the lowest among the quintet, but it will improve as he faces physical sides like Burnley and Newcastle in the Premier League.
However, one of the most striking aspects about the young Frenchman is that he has only conceded two fouls in 12 Ligue 1 games this season, doing so at a rate of 0.18 per 90. This is miles better than the current error-prone crop of Arsenal centre-backs: Luiz averages 0.91, Sokratis 1.01 and Mustafi 0.87 fouls per 90.
As Saint Etienne have much less possession per game compared with Arsenal, Saliba averages fewer passes per 90 compared to the Arsenal trio. But the Frenchman is extremely comfortable on the ball and has a passing accuracy of almost 88% that is better than that of Arsenal's current centre-backs.
Saliba also averages a respectable 3.18 progressive passes per 90, compared to David Luiz (3), Mustafi (3.26) and Sokratis (1.28).
The data for this season shows that William Saliba is an incredibly calm centre-back who makes very few unforced errors, which is a welcome change for an Arsenal defender. His proficiency on the ball also suits manager Mikel Arteta’s style of playing out from the back.
Although he can be a liability aerially, Saliba can be paired up with the likes of Mari or Mustafi next season who are better in the air than the Frenchman. It is, however, important to know that Saliba is not the magic solution to Arsenals defensive frailties.
He will not come in and miraculously solve all of Arsenal's defensive problems. The boy is only 19 and will need time to get used to the pace and physicality of the Premier League.
Saliba will probably make mistakes in the beginning and may not have the instant impact Virgil Van Dijk had at Liverpool and make Arsenal instant title challengers. But while the Frenchman isn’t the final piece in the Arsenal jigsaw, his arrival is certainly a step in the right direction for the Gunners.
The performances will come as he gets acquainted with the rigours of the Premier League, and just like a certain other Bondi graduate, Saliba is destined for greatness.
