William Saliba Scout Report At OGC Nice 2020/2021 – Is Arsenal’s 20 Year Old ‘Leader’ Ready For Mikel Arteta’s Team?

Who Is William Saliba?

William Saliba (192cm/6’4”, 85kg/187lbs) hasn’t had much of an opportunity to make an impact at Arsenal since moving to the Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2019 for €30m (£27m).

He was loaned to Saint-Étienne, where he’d progressed through the youth ranks since 2016, for the 2019/20 season, while he spent the first portion of this past season out of sight and out of mind for Mikel Arteta.

Saliba didn’t make a first-team appearance for the Gunners in the 2020/21 campaign before he was sent back to Ligue 1 for the second half of the season, this time joining OGC Nice.

After making that loan switch, the 20-year-old Frenchman was quite outspoken about his difficult start to the season, telling the media that Arteta failed to give him “a chance to rediscover [his] rhythm” before deciding that Saliba was not ready for Arsenal’s first-team and declaring: “Even though I’m young, I’ve come to be a leader.”

The Saint-Étienne academy product was a leader in several different ways during his loan stint at Nice, where, despite Arteta’s uncertainty, Saliba shone as a first-team asset  a role he’ll undoubtedly hope to continue playing on his return to the EPL giants.

This tactical analysis, in the form of a scout report, provides analysis of Saliba’s impressive displays at Nice during the second half of the 2020/21 campaign, which earned him a place on the shortlist for the Ligue 1 Centre Back of the Season award.

We’ll discuss some key strengths and weaknesses to Saliba’s game, what role he played in Adrian Ursea’s tactics, and how he could potentially fit into Mikel Arteta’s plans for next term in our scout report.

William Saliba Ball-carrying Abilties

Some of Saliba’s greatest strengths are in his on-the-ball quality and with Nice being one of the most possession-based sides in Ligue 1 this past season, keeping an average of 54.1% possession, more than all but four other teams in France’s top-flight, Les Aiglons provided a good environment for Saliba to showcase his abilities on the ball.

Before his season-ending cruciate ligament injury, Dante was one of Nice’s most important players in terms of ball progression.

He typically occupied the left centre-back position for Les Aiglons.

While Saliba couldn’t replicate everything that Dante brought to this team, with the Brazilian having been a central figure to his side’s tactics before his injury, the Frenchman’s January loan signing was Nice’s attempt to replace the 37-year-old former Bayern Munich man and looking at how Saliba performed at Allianz Riviera.

It’s difficult to fault the Alpes-Maritimes-based side’s recruitment.

Saliba ended the 2020/21 Ligue 1 campaign having progressed the ball 7.1m per minute.

This is a further distance per minute than any other Ligue 1 player progressed the ball, including Dante, who came second on that list, highlighting the important role that Nice’s centre-backs played in ball progression.

The Arsenal loanee tended to progress play via ball-carrying more than passing.

He also progressed play via runs more, in terms of distance, than any other player in Ligue 1 this past season, including PSG attacker Neymar, who was second on that list, indicating the central role that Saliba and his ball-carrying played for Ursea following his January arrival at Nice.

Figure 1 shows how Nice look in build-up.

While they generally played with two centre-back formations, Les Aiglons tended to build up with three players in the traditional centre-back roles quite a lot, which we see here.

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