‘Can’t learn from him’ – Gallas warns that Arsenal will hold back youngster | OneFootball

William Gallas has warned that William Saliba cannot learn from Arsenal team-mate and defensive partner Gabriel Magalhaes.

The French defender initially joined from St Etienne back in 2019, but was allowed to return to France for three separate loan spells with his former club, Nice and Marseille, before finally making his debut this term, and he has gone onto play every minute of our Premier League thus far.

After such a bright start to the campaign, he is soaking up plenty of plaudits, and while Gallas has been impressed by the partnership formed at the back by Gabriel and Saliba, he believes our youngster needs a better partner to reach ‘an even higher level’.

‘I thought Saliba was excellent. He was very strong in his performance, focussed, he won all of his individual battles and duels,’ Gallas said (via the Metro).

‘For his age, the maturity that he showed in his performance was very good. If he continues to do what he does, then he has a very bright future in the game.

‘I think with the way things are going for him, if he continues with this development, then he can become one of the top defenders.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised to see him nominated for the Young Player of the Year award because he has been that good.

‘As I’ve said recently, I still think he needs to have one top class defender to partner him to take him to an even higher level.

‘Sometimes you need to learn from someone and at the moment, he doesn’t have that at Arsenal.

‘I think Gabriel is playing well. He plays with a lot of intensity and is improving, but Saliba can’t learn from him.

‘Saliba needs an experienced player next to him and he will become even better. I love what he is doing for Arsenal.’

While I like the partnership we have, I tend to agree here. Saliba has a very high ceiling, and while he is likely to improve under Mikel Arteta’s guise, he could definitely do with a role model alongside him who had some pearls of wisdom to pass on.

It’s a shame David Luiz isn’t still at a level where he could have continued, as he had a lot to pass on to a positive defender such as Saliba.

Who do you think we should target that Saliba could ideally learn from?

Patrick