Arsenal must keep William Saliba at the club next season despite the reported interest from Marseille. Jurgen Klopp has shown Mikel Arteta why the Frenchman will be valuable to the team even if he is not a starter.
According to French news outlet RMC Sport, Marseille are ready to submit a €30million (£25.6million) offer to secure Saliba’s services. The Frenchman was excellent in his loan move with the Ligue 1 side season.
Despite Saliba not being a guaranteed starter for Arsenal next season, Arteta must follow the Liverpool model which saw Jurgen Klopp actively using four centre-backs all competing for a spot that ultimately raised the players' performance levels.
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Despite Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Virgil Van Dijk being fit and ready ahead of the last campaign, Liverpool still decided to sign one of Europe’s most promising defenders in Ibrahima Konate. Since the start of last season Klopp was able to rotate the defensive partnerships game-by-game and using the personnel that will suit best for the upcoming fixture.
This worked a treat for the Reds who enjoyed an incredibly successful season by winning two trophies and reaching the final of the Champions League. This is a defensive model that Arteta can look to follow ahead of next season.
Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White is the current preferred defensive partnership at Arsenal for Arteta, but that is because they had a lack of competition in that position with Rob Holding being the only alternative. However, this could change next season with it being possible that Arsenal could add two new defenders to their ranks.
Alongside Saliba, according to The Athletic, Arsenal's priority is Lisandro Martinez due to the 24-year-old's ability to play at centre-back and left back. Martinez is reportedly keen on a move to the Emirates Stadium, and Ajax are rumoured to have rejected a bid in the region of £25million.
With the potential arrival of the Argentine it means that Arteta will have four quality centre-backs to choose from, which shouldn’t be considered as too many options and selling Saliba as a result of this. Klopp has shown why the Gunners can benefit from having depth at the heart of the defence.
Arsenal will also be playing in the Europa League next season so the needed depth will be required to cope with the increase in fixtures compared to the last campaign meaning Gabriel and White will need to be rotated.
It should be considered as a necessity to keep Saliba at the club and the Gunners must reject any advances that come their way from Marseille.
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