William Saliba: Page 105 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

William Saliba

lorddulaarsenal

The guy is getting stupidly good. He’s improved again this season. Hard to explain the improvement but his decision making is now better than ever.

By the way, we now have our best defence since the days of Adams and co

Clrnc

Can't believe Desailly says he's below average

Gazza M

Clrnc huh? he is being an absolute hater if that's what he's said

Clrnc

https://www.londonworld.com/sport/football/arsenal/martin-keown-and-rio-ferdinand-hit-back-at-marcel-desaillys-below-average-william-saliba-claim-4403111

Ridiculous

Mirth

Clrnc must be eyeing a punditry gig on Sky

Daz

Further evidence (as if it was needed) that Gallas is a fucking clueless knob

Qwiss

Daz Saliba is already better than Gallas ever was.

IBL

Jealousy

Sicario2

Qwiss
Maybe when Gallas played for us but at Chelsea he was another level and won two league titles (also reached WC final). So far Saliba won nothing but def has a higher ceiling than Willy.

Mirth

Saliba’s the most obviously talented CB I’ve seen in an Arsenal shirt since Sol Campbell.

Don Pacifico

Sicario2 would you say that Gallas was on par with CL winner Djimi Traore?

Qwiss

Sicario2 Gallas was mostly shunted out to left back at Chelsea, thats why he threw his toys out of the pram. I'll say again, Gallas was never as good as Saliba is right now.

Sicario2

Don Pacifico

I forgot Traore was an integral part of Liverpool winning that CL from start to finish.

The Chelsea defence that Gallas was a huge part of was arguably the best defence in the premier league era (think 2004/2005 they conceded the least amount of goals). Also Gallas scoring record was immense for a defender, haven’t seen that with Saliba (yet).

People are going to say Saliba is already better than Desailly and Laurent Blanc next 🤣

Chill, the guy is only 21, let him develop and grow. I’m sure he will get there but to say he is already better than someone like Gallas (with his career as I mentioned) is lunacy.

Ppl love to go OTT on our players here ie Jesus second best striker in the league/Odegaard is World Class/Saka can get into the invincibles etc

Majority of our players haven’t won anything and are very young. Give them space.

QuincyAbeyie

Sicario2 Jesus has won many more trophies than Harry Kane.

Gallas is so far from players like Desailly and Blanc.

Mirth

Sicario2 The Chelsea defence that Gallas was a huge part of was arguably the best defence in the premier league era (think 2004/2005 they conceded the least amount of goals). Also Gallas scoring record was immense for a defender, haven’t seen that with Saliba (yet).

So huge that Mourinho binned him for Cole? Gallas was good but that Chelsea defence was down to Terry, Carvalho, Makelele and Cech. He flopped at both Arsenal and Spurs after that.

Anyway, it seems like there's two separate discussions - Gallas obviously has a better CV because he's finished his career while Saliba is just beginning. Talent, however, has nothing to do with that.

Sicario2

Mirth

Gallas played an equally important part as the others you mentioned, def scored the most critical goals out of that lot. I think he wanted to leave because he wanted to play centre back.

I don’t think he ‘flopped’ per se at Arsenal and by the time he went to Spurs he was probably past his prime.

At Arsenal, Wenger made him captain for a reason and I remember he did well in the big games. Obviously we all remember the Birmingham game but also think he unfairly got treated with the ex-Chelsea syndrome from our fans so no matter what he did we could not forget his past associations (similar to what Jorg is going through now).

Don Pacifico

The idea that winning something is the arbiter of whether a player is good or not is nonsense (especially in a team sport). To suggest Gallas is better than Saliba for this reason alone is what I have an issue with, regardless of anyone's opinion on Gallas.

Sicario2

Don Pacifico

It’s not just winning something. Anyone can be part of a trophy winning team but the fact he was a significant part of why that Chelsea side were arguably the best defence ever (in England).

Qwiss

Gallas definitely flopped at Arsenal. He was rubbish, he scored a couple of goals that had people giving him a pass but he was terrible at the back and a really toxic presence in the team.

Don Pacifico

Qwiss I'd disagree with that as it's not my recollection. I've always felt that his copy book was unfairly blotted by that game at St. Andrews (which albeit poor, was an incredibly emotional situation with everything that had occurred that day) and the fact he played for Spurs. I thought he was capable defensively without necessarily being superior to some of the better CBs we've had in the last 20 years.

So whilst I respect his ability, I don't think his silverware at Chelsea means he was one of the best defenders we've seen and I'm inclined to think that what we've already seen from Saliba has been better (guy is incredibly mature defensively).

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