4 ways Arsenal can line up with William Saliba next season

Hopefully this will be the end. It’s been widely discussed at length across various managers’ tenures. Nevertheless, the future of William Saliba at Arsenal remains undecided.

With the season coming to its close and just ten matches standing between Mikel Arteta’s side and the prospect of Champions League, Europa League, or even Europa Conference League, glances are being cast towards the future.

There is still a long way to go, of course. Arsenal could end up out of Europe entirely. But in whatever outcome the planning for everything after May 22 is already underway.

That includes Saliba.

4 ways Arsenal can line up with William Saliba next season as Mikel Arteta has decisions to make on £27m centre-back in the summer

He will return to Arsenal as the most experienced U21 central defender in Europe, as well as a senior France international. All without kicking a ball for the Gunners’ first team…yet.

Either he signs a new contract and instills himself as an integral member of the squad, or he is sold. It’s likely to be one or the other. In either case, a solution, of sorts, needs to be arranged this summer.

However that may be, it does look like happening: Arsenal have an expensive asset or a huge talent on their hands, and Saliba has a bright future ahead that he wants to embark on without uncertainties.

Working on the basis that a situation where a £27m player – who is close to two years and nine months into a career without playing for the club – will have the solution everyone hopes for, there are four ways Arsenal could line up with him.

1. Back Three With Gabriel, Saliba & White

It’s been mooted for some time that Saliba’s return (start?) is going to cause a selection headache in central defence, therefore what better way to satisfy all parties than to play all parties?

On paper this is a system that would cater to the defenders Arsenal have. Benjamin White spent his time at Brighton operating as the right sided central defender in a back three, an area of the pitch where his smart distribution down the line and behind the opposition defence can be complemented by his ball carrying prowess out from the back.

Arteta still allows these qualities to shine, hence why one of the reasons the more defensive-minded Takehiro Tomiyasu was such a smart pickup.

As for Saliba, no player in Ligue 1 has progressed the ball through carrying more than him this season. His strides out from the back are confident and clean, and him having two defenders either side plays to that strength. Furthermore, he’s not the neatest aerially and extra bodies means extra support.

Can we see it happening? No chance.

It has the capacity to work, but Arsenal have spent the majority of this season fine-tuning their 4-3-3 shape and ripping that blueprint up for a 21-year-old centre-back without any Premier League experience would be both rash and destabalising. What the team have going at the moment with duel No. 8’s and Thomas Partey as the holding midfielder is working in all three areas of the pitch.

That isn’t going to change for the sake of one player. It might see Nuno Tavares get some serious minutes at left wing-back, mind you.

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