Didier Deschamps had seemingly decided his centre-back pairing for Euro 2024. Dayot Upamecano has been undroppable, as has Ibrahima Konaté. However, the latter was a surprise omission from the starting line-up in France’s opener against Austria.
There has been a clamour for Saliba to be included in France’s starting XI, especially from fans of the Premier League. However, he has long since been perceived differently on the other side of the English Channel and Deschamps even criticised the Arsenal centre-back in March, stating that he “sometimes does things [he] doesn’t like”.
However, Saliba got the nod over Konaté in Les Bleus’ opener in Düsseldorf on Monday. He partnered Upamecano, who have little experience of playing together. In a post-match press conference, attended by Get French Football News, Deschamps explained his decision.
“If I decided to play William Saliba, it is because I thought he was more ready than Konaté 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,” said the France manager.
With Saliba and Upamecano keeping a clean sheet, it seems unlikely that Deschamps would make a change when Les Bleus face the Netherlands on Friday.
