Big Willie
The problem I have with Gabriel on the ball is that he has very poor agility and balance, and that means he can't turn with the ball to create space and open up angles. White, Saliba and, especially, Zinchenko, can do this with their eyes closed. He's also very one-footed which also doesn't help, and because he's aware of these two things, he too often lacks composure.
Gabriel's stiffness and one-footedness is similar to what was a big limiting factor is Xhaka's game. And like Granit, Gabriel's passing numbers look decent on paper, but when teams press hard and put us under pressure, he's the weak-link in the chain, the guy targeted by the opposition to funnel the ball to and set traps for their press. And he gets boxed in too easily and either plays others into trouble (which still counts as an accurate pass) or has to go backwards or long. It's the complete opposite when you watch Saliba - he can throw a body swerve, take an extra second on the ball, use his weak foot to find a progressive/good pass, stroll forward and dribble through a gap, or just play the pass when he's ready because he knows he has the tools to deal with being pressed. Simply put, he consistently finds a way not to play passes that put a level of strain on the players around him that will cause a breakdown under pressure - Gabriel just isn't able to do that.
That said, he's an excellent pure defender, one of the best in Europe imo, so as I said above, it all depends on exactly how we want to play. If we're trying to move toward 80% possession and territorial domination, where most of the defending comes from the counter-pressing forwards and midfielders, then maybe Gabriel doesn't fit into that.
