Didier Deschamps hinted that William Saliba 's inexperience led to him being substituted at half-time during France 's shock 2-0 defeat to Denmark.
The in-form Arsenal defender was hauled off at the break after goals from Kasper Dolberg and Andreas Skov Olsen gave the hosts a comfortable lead over the young French side. Deschamps made the decision to hand Saliba and a number of his fellow international fledglings a start in Copenhagen for their sixth and final Nations League group match, as Les Blues already couldn't qualify for the latter stages having won just one game ahead of a pulsating night of finales in the competition on Sunday.
Following a dire first-half performance from the reigning world champions, Saliba and Real Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga made way to signal how concerned Deschamps was with their individual displays. "I don't think it's a shipwreck, we also had a lot of chances but we were ineffective, we made some errors when playing out from the back," the France boss told TF1 post-match.
"It's a young French side, where the majority of the players don't have experience at the very highest level. It's not a question of formations, but when you have four corners and a Danish player is left alone each time, you can play with three, five or twelve at the back, it doesn't change a thing.
"There's no need to worry, the fact that the players with international experience are coming back will do us good. Cama was not in the best mood, it can happen. He has not been with us for a long time and he’s starting the match already. He was not the only one either. It will serve him well for the future just as it will serve others."
"Obviously we have young, quality players who are learning but the important thing is to recover all our vital, experienced players for two months' time."
Have your say! Does Saliba deserve to start for France at the World Cup? Join the debate in the comments section.
Having narrowly avoided relegation to League B after bottom-placed Austria lost at home to Croatia, the pressure is piling on Deschamps and co to deliver once their World Cup campaign kicks off in Qatar on November 22 - or it could be curtains on his decade-long spell in charge. Les Blues will face Australia, Denmark and Tunisia in Group D, hoping to repeat their success of winning the tournament in Russia four years ago.
"There's no worrying, it's difficult for everyone," Deschamps went on to admit. "Last night I was watching other games, there are other big teams that are losing as well. We shouldn't think of ourselves as better than the others. We're going to have to fight."
