Man Utd target is better than Saliba - Desailly

Jacque Talbot

Updated: 2 Nov 2024 10:54 GMT
3 min read

William Saliba, Arsenal, 2024/25 — © IMAGO

Marcel Desailly has made the claim that Manchester United target Gleison Bremer is better than Arsenal's William Saliba.

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The former Chelsea defender was featured on a TikTok video which has since gone viral. In it, he is asked which player is better than the other, with the winner staying on.

At one point Juventus man Bremer came up and Desailly was asked if he would rather the Brazilian or Saliba, but he chose the former.

Bremer was linked with a switch to United earlier this year but his fine displays for the Old Lady. Desailly's choice may seem bizarre but it's not the first time that he was been overly critical of his compatriot Saliba, a player many deem to be one of the best centre-backs in the world.

Last year, in an interview with Get French Football News Desailly, said that he doesn’t believe Saliba’s “individual qualities to be above average”.

🇫🇷💭 Marcel Desailly ranks some defenders. (@Gazzetta_it) pic.twitter.com/v7Z1synHeK
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) November 1, 2024

Saliba 'average'

However, Desailly, who earned 116 caps for Les Bleus from 1993 to 2004, feels that the 23-year-old needs to elevate his game to unseat the current central defensive pairing of Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahima Konate.

“Upamecano, and Konate – their association is fabulous. And more than that – I think that, individually, they maybe have a level above what we saw with Varane and Umtiti. But before they can express their individuality at a very high level, their association needs to be good,” Desailly told GFFN.

He added, “Then there is the one at Arsenal too (William Saliba) – he hasn’t yet had the game time to adapt to that necessary association. I don’t believe his individual qualities to be above average.

"He’s at a very, very high level but not extraordinary. So before absorbing the international level, he needs to acclimatise to those associations. As things stand I don’t know how to associate him with Konate or with Upamecano so that he can excel and develop all the talent that he has in him.”