Ashley Williams does not think there is one way to handle the World Cup's elite forwards. He has separate answers for Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane, and the common thread is simple enough: defenders need a plan for each one, not a generic block.

Williams' defensive answers

"It's more of a team effort. You've got to cover all your bases, which might be getting tight as a defender, or dropping off and letting your midfield get tight," Ashley Williams said on BBC Sport.

Against Messi, Williams wants defenders to push him into comfortable areas with body shape, distancing and angles of approach. He also thinks Messi can still take control in possession even when opponents think they have directed him away from danger, because of the low centre of gravity, balance and touch that let him manipulate the ball.

Mbappé is the different problem. Williams described him as more direct than Messi and said defenders stay locked in with him because of the pace he forces them to defend at. For Haaland, the priority is even more basic: stop the balls in behind and cut off the supply first. He added that Haaland can beat teams without the ball, which is why the off-ball movement is part of the danger.

Kane is the striker Williams wants managed around the box, where the instruction is to get tight, try to force him onto his right foot and, in his words, "just get the ball away and buy time." He is not dressing this up as a universal fix, and that is probably the right call. These four forwards punish different mistakes.

France, Mbappé and the record chase

The France angle is already moving quickly. France beat Senegal 3-1 in their opening World Cup match in Group I, with all three goals coming in the second half. Kylian Mbappé scored twice to overtake Olivier Giroud as France's all-time top goalscorer with 58 goals.

He is now on 14 World Cup goals, three behind Miroslav Klose's record of 16. Saliba was happy to talk up the run after France vs Senegal, saying: "I think he has everything to beat the record. I hope he is going to do it in this tournament. For sure, he has everything and I am sure he will do it."

There is still a separate debate over whether France should be treated as favourites, with William Saliba saying they are not and that there are a lot of teams who can win the tournament. That is a fair caution, but it does not change the shape of Mbappé's start. He opened the tournament with two goals, hit the target with all four of his shots, and played 99 minutes in a performance that looked as clean as the scoreline suggested.

The bigger point is that Williams' defensive notes already fit the evidence. Mbappé, Messi, Haaland and Kane are not asking for the same solution, and France's first game showed how quickly one of them can turn a match if the wrong spaces open up.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →