In their penultimate match of 2020, six days before Christmas, the Nice defense was torn to pieces by Lyon. In fact, even that might be an overly generous reading of what happened. The Nice defense was torn apart for the benefit of Lyon.
Before half-time, the Aiglons had given two goals to Lyonnais Rudi Garcia, who added two after the break.
It was another setback in a bad season and the sixth time Nice had conceded three or more in a game since they were hammered 6-2 by Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League on October 22.
Between the Leverkusen and Lyon matches, Nice coach Patrick Vieira was sacked by his bosses at INEOS Football and their Brazilian defender Dante suffered an ACL injury that will prevent him from playing for the season.
Although INEOS spent money to bring in forwards Kasper Dolberg, Alexis Claude-Maurice and Amine Gouiri, as well as Morgan Schneiderlin in midfield, their defensive recruitment had not been so well planned.
Without Dante, they found themselves facing 23-year-old Robson Bambu, 20-year-old Stanley Nsoki, and Austrian teenager Flavius Daniliuc. With little experience and insufficient quality, they were extremely vulnerable.
In the January transfer window, Nice had to act. The obvious thing to do would have been to hire an old head, either for free or on loan, to calmly guide their young backline.
Instead, Nice has gone daring. Two other youngsters came, William Saliba and Jean-Clair Todibo, on loan from Arsenal and Barcelona respectively.
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READ: Comparison of William Saliba’s stats in Nice with Arsenal’s current CB options
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It was a risk. In a struggling team, how would two players fare who had barely played a senior game all season?
But the bet seems to be paying off. Just three games away from their new defensive partnership, Saliba and Todibo are already on the lips of French football fans as a new defensive double to watch in Ligue 1. As a The title of L’Equipe read on February 13: “Jean-Clair Todibo and William Saliba, an already indispensable duo in Nice.
nineteen years old Saliba was the first to enter, arrived on January 4. For player and parent club Arsenal it was an obvious decision. Saliba had been the big hope of Arsenal fans when he arrived in north London in the summer of 2020, but manager Mikel Arteta was unwilling to launch him.
Speaking at a press conference in November, exasperated by questions about the Frenchman, Arteta said: “I explained that [Saliba] needed that transition year when we decided to buy him… For many reasons that didn’t happen – he didn’t have this transition year and he has to go through it.
Saliba was also clearly frustrated. As he admitted during his unveiling in the south of France: “My first six months [at Arsenal] were difficult… The coach told me straight away that I was not ready. At least I would have liked to have had the chance to find my rhythm again. But that’s football, that’s how it is.
The Nice approach, which was lacking in the department, guaranteed playing time in a championship that Saliba already knew.
Yet despite how good Saliba was, it wasn’t immediately clear that it would work. The 19-year-old made it into the final three with Daniliuc and Robson Bambu, and although he was the pick of the field, flaunting his beautiful footwork and aerial presence, Nice remained inconsistent, narrowly winning on Lens but losing against Brest and Saint-Etienne and being pushed around by Bordeaux.
Saliba makes football a lot easier than it actually is … pic.twitter.com/Wo0egh4wDa
– Sam (@afcsammm) February 16, 2021
Needing another backup, they turned to Todibo at the end of January.
Todibo moved from Toulouse to Barcelona two years ago following an exceptional performance for the France Under-20 team and a strong start to his senior career in Ligue 1, a form which led his Toulouse teammate to the ‘then Manu Garcia to call him a “special player”.
Still, like Saliba, Todibo struggled to get minutes after his big transfer. With Gerard Pique, Clément Lenglet, Samuel Umtiti and more recently Ronald Araujo in front of him, Todibo was loaned to Schalke and then to Benfica, struggling to adapt to two opposing climates and cultures.
As Arsenal loaned Saliba on loan, the loan made sense for the player and the parent club. Todibo would have guaranteed minutes and knew the country and the league.
But another player still eligible for Under-21 football in a non-defenseless team over 23?
Once again, the obvious would have been to seek experience. Received wisdom dictates that for their development, Todibo and Saliba, like other young Nice center-backs, should play alongside an experienced defender from whom they can learn the dark arts of defense.
But Nice was not taken aback by the supposed madness in their actions, confident that the quality would outweigh the experience. And immediately, with Saliba and Todibo on the squad together, things just picked up speed.
They lost their first game – as a pair in a four-back now, rather than a three-way defensive line – but the margin was narrow, a 2-1 loss in the derby to put Monaco in shape as they there was only one Wissam Ben Yedder Wonder-Strike finally broke their resistance.
As the So Foot match report says: “Morgan Schneiderlin’s return and Jean-Clair Todibo’s debut allow us to better predict. [things to come] for the Aiglons.
Standby ready: Jean-Clair Todibo has been named to L’Équipe’s team of the week. [l’equipe] pic.twitter.com/xhnosOJ8I4
– barcacentre (@barcacentre) February 9, 2021
The article was premonitory. In the next game, Nice kept only their third clean sheet since the start of December and won for the first time at home in the league since October 3, winning 3-0 against Angers.
Ahead of their next league game against PSG, Vieira replacement Adrian Ursea was asked about his new defenders and told L’Equipe: “Despite their young age, they bring a lot of personality and control, and that affects the stability of the team. A defender must first know how to defend, and [they] both do.
It wasn’t just their defensive flair that impressed Ursea. “We want to launch attacks from behind,” he continued, “and Todibo and Saliba reassure us about that. We try to take advantage of it because what we can do in the last 30 meters depends on the way we use the ball in our defense.
The pair, as you would expect from young French internationals, have exceptional quality in possession. In the game against Angers, they achieved a combined total of 119 assists, with success rates of 91%.
Amine Gouiri, who has been the best striker in Nice this season, was equally impressed: “Saliba and Todibo are very good technically, they are fast and they are strong in duels. They allow us to play football the way we want to, keep the ball and stay high on the pitch.
Against PSG, Todibo and Saliba started together for the third time. Although Nice lost, 2-1 was a much leaner score than they might have suffered if they hadn’t brought in their young pair of center-backs.
Asked to explain the ease with which they adapted to Nice and to each other, Saliba told BeIn Sports: “I have known [Jean-Clair] for three or four years now. I have played against him in junior football and at the professional level. We were with the junior teams from France, so of course that helps our relationship.
For Nice, the pair promise a much better second half of the season and for their parent clubs, the development of Saliba and Todibo can only be positive. The duo are looking to prove Arsenal and Barcelona wrong in not giving them more opportunities by proving both clubs right by showing the kind of form that motivated their transfers in the first place.
Just over four weeks after joining Nice, Saliba was named the club’s player of the month for January, and for the Arsenal man in particular, his current manager Ursea will provide a glowing benchmark on his return.
“You can see that he has character and above all he reassures others,” Ursea told BeIn Sports. “He doesn’t express himself, but he’s a leader in his own way. To see you a young boy who isn’t even 20 years old playing with such confidence… it’s really quite amazing.
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