'Real lads in the squad' - Thomas Tuchel's assistant explains how England can win World Cup with 'impossible' playing style warning

Barry and Tuchel have worked together on a number of occasions previously, before the pair agreed to take the reins after Gareth Southgate’s long spell at the helm and Lee Carsley’s interim time in charge. The former lower-league midfielder has been at the German’s side at both Bayern Munich and Chelsea, and when Tuchel agreed to take charge of the Three Lions, Barry was the obvious choice to partner him in the Wembley dugout.

As per a report in The Times, FA technical director John McDermott knew that Barry was the right fit to take the England assistant role, and the 39-year-old quickly agreed to the position, excited at the prospect of not just returning home, but also to oversee a talented crop of players at the next World Cup.

The assistant has shared why he is confident in his players and, having already secured qualification to the game’s biggest tournament, can start to look ahead to just how they can become World Champions in New Jersey next July.

Speaking to TheTimes, Barry explained that “it is a huge privilege” to work with the English national team, but the real enjoyment comes in working with this generation of England players. The assistant said that he and Tuchel spent an afternoon in a cafe in Munich detailing how they would help bring a “second star to England”.

On that meeting, Barry said: “You start to do analysis. Okay, what’s the squad? What’s the mission? Pretty quickly we had the feeling that [winning the World Cup] is something we could do with this not only level of player but, we thought, character of player. We thought there were some real lads in the squad.

“We have 360-degree profiling of all the players, psychological, technical, tactical, physical, and we don’t view them just as individual players but how they interact: how will this player psychologically affect this player, can he play with him tactically.”

He continued to share that they have psychologists and scoring systems that help the coaches measure body language, behaviour, inter-squad interaction, and the manner in which players share information with others. This analysis also allows the coaches to understand when an individual requires further support.

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According to Barry, building the right environment is just as, if not more, important as being tactically impressive. Given the short windows in which the England coaching staff will work with their players, the assistant admitted it is difficult to implement a playing style akin to a free-flowing Barcelona or Manchester City.

“In international football, you will never create a team on the field that can play the way the Barcelona of old or the recent Man City did, it’s simply impossible,” he explained. “But if you can create a brotherhood, a connection, an energy between each other, then that’s the petrol in the car. When I worked at Chelsea, I could tell by the players walking out the door [for international duty] who was going to win. I could tell, because they wanted to go.”

England have games against Serbia and Albania on Thursday and Sunday next week, two tests which provide Tuchel’s team an opportunity to keep building towards the World Cup. The England boss will have to cope without Marc Guehi, who has established himself as a key part of the Three Lions’ defence, after the centre-half was ruled out with bruising to the bone in his foot.

Jude Bellingham also returns to the England squad for the first time since being ruled out with a shoulder injury and could look to force his way back into the starting line-up for these final World Cup qualifiers.

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