William Saliba is unlikely to start at centre-back for France in their Euro 2024 opening match against Austria.
That’s according to French football expert Julien Laurens, who also told talkSPORT about how Les Bleus could line up in their clash.
Didier Deschamps’ side travel to Germany as one of the favourites to win Euro 2024 this summer amid their huge crop of talent.
Saliba has been selected in their squad after yet another impressive season at Arsenal, in which he started in all 38 of their Premier League matches.
However, the 23-year-old has only made eight starts for France across his 15 caps and Laurens has hinted that this trend could remain at the Euros.
Speaking on Hawksbee and Jacobs on whether Deschamps has taken a blind spot with Saliba, he said: “There’s two big debates, this one and the one where Kylian Mbappe is going to play, why he should defend or not defend, that’s another one.
“But the first one you’re right, defensively it seems that will be the case for the first game against Austria next week, that [Ibrahima] Konate and [Dayot] Upamecano will be the starting centre-backs for that game.
“And that William Saliba we’ll see on the bench, he was excellent the other night in their draw against Canada, he started and played 60 minutes with Upamecano first and then Konate came on for the last half hour or so.
“He played with them and he was the best of the three for sure but in Deschamps’ mind, Konate and Upamecano have played more together, he thinks they’re very complimentary of each other.
“And like he said in a press conference back in March, there’s still things in William’s game that he wants to see him improve, so that’s why right now he’s still in the pecking order where I think a lot of people think that he should be first.”
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Laurens was then asked to reveal how he expects France to line up, with their first clash against Austria coming on Monday June 17.
“It will be a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3,” he said. “Depending on [Antoine] Griezmann’s position but I think he will have a lot of freedom with the ball or without the ball in that midfield.
“But then the back four will be [Jules] Kounde at right-back who’s not really a right-back, he’s a centre-back, and he would be a very defensive right-back because you have a very attacking left-back on the other side in Theo Hernandez.
“Then you pick two between Upamecano, Konate and Saliba. I would pick Saliba and Konate, Deschamps will probably pick Upamecano ahead of Saliba, but it could change as well.
“N’Golo Kante is back in the national team after two years of absence, his season in Saudi Arabia clearly convinced Deschamps that he could still call him. He’s been very good in the two friendly matches that he played, so Kante will be there in front of the defence.
“I think he will have next to him [Adrien] Rabiot when he’s fit or [Aurelien] Tchouameni when he’s fit, for now it will be [Youssouf] Fofana for that first game against Austria, and then Griezmann.
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“And then the front three, there’s a lot of options, [Bradley] Barcola, [Marcus] Thuram, [Ousmane] Dembele, [Kingsley] Coman, and Kylian of course. Mbappe will play central we think, Thuram on the left because Mbappe doesn’t want to defend and on the right, Dembele will play there.
“So imagine a left-back that is really attacking in Theo Hernandez, Thuram as a left winger that comes inside a lot, Mbappe on his own, Griezmann floating around in midfield.
“And then on the right, Kounde very defensive and Dembele with the whole right side really to cause chaos. I think this is a pretty good, balanced, talented team.”
France will play the Netherlands and Poland in their other Group D matches, with the two-time winners eyeing European glory this summer for the first time since 2000.