Arsenal Star, William Saliba Blames Didier Deschamps’ For France Loss To Tunisia

Arsenal defender, William Saliba feels France struggled to a 1-0 defeat against Tunisia due to the number of changes Didier Deschamps made to the starting XI and players playing out of position.

With top spot in Group D pretty much guaranteed, Deschamps made nine changes to the side that beat Denmark in their last game.

The likes of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, and Olivier Giroud dropped out, while there were some eye-catching selections, including midfielder Eduardo Camavinga playing at left-back.

Saliba believes the many changes made by Deschamps were largely responsible for France’s lack of rhythm and eventual loss to Tunisia. “It definitely wasn’t an easy game today.

The team was changed; there were a lot of players who had never played together, so it was a bit difficult.”

William Saliba downplayed talk of fear among Les Bleus, but did admit the players were shaken up at the start of the game. “But there were players who weren’t in their usual position, so they weren’t used to it,” he added.

France finished top of Group D with 6 points after earlier victories against Australia and Denmark, and will next face Poland in the round of 16.

Meanwhile, France manager Deschamps believes that frequently rotating his squad was the reason they fell to defeat against Tunisia in their final group game.

Wahbi Khazri’s goal was the difference, as the Carthage Eagles won against a European nation at the World Cup for the first time in their history.

Deschamps himself admitted that his changes did not help, although he is not concerned, saying it will be beneficial when the knockout stages begin in the coming days.

‘We had some difficulties through the choices that I made,’ admitted the France boss. ‘It should help us in four days.

‘Some players were at risk [of injury] and we had just played two high-intensity matches. It allowed the substitutes to see the difference [in quality] in a World Cup match. We’ve reached the objective, we’re going to recover, now begins a second competition.’