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A decade ago, the England assistant coach competed for Accrington Stanley. Today, his attention is fixed on helping the head coach win the World Cup next summer. His path from athlete to trainer began with a voluntary role coaching youngsters. He recalls, “It was in the evenings, third of a pitch, asked to do 11 v 11 … flat balls, not enough bibs,” and he fell in love with it. He discovered his purpose.

Metoric Climb

His advancement is incredible. Commencing in a senior role at Wigan, he developed a name through unique exercises and excellent people skills. His club career took him to elite sides, while also serving in roles with national teams for Ireland, Belgium, and Portugal. He's coached legends including top footballers. Today, as part of Team England, it’s full-time, the top as he describes it.

“Dreams are the starting point … But I’m a believer that dedication shifts obstacles. You have the dream and then you plan: ‘How can we achieve it, gradually?’ We aim for World Cup victory. Yet dreams alone aren't enough. We must create a methodical process that allows us to maximize our opportunities.”

Obsession with Details

Passion, particularly on fine points, is central to his philosophy. Working every hour day and night, they both push hard at comfort zones. Their methods feature mental assessments, a strategy for high temperatures for the World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and building a true team. He stresses the national team spirit and dislikes phrases including "pause".

“It's not time off or a break,” he explains. “It was vital to establish a setup where players are eager to join and they're pushed that going back is a relief.”

Driven Leaders

Barry describes himself and Tuchel as highly ambitious. “We want to dominate each element of play,” he declares. “We strive to own the whole ground and that's our focus most of our time to. We must not only to stay ahead of changes and to lead and set new standards. It's an ongoing effort to have this problem/solution-finding mentality. And to simplify complexity.

“There are 50 days with the players prior to the World Cup. We must implement a sophisticated style that gives us a tactical advantage and we must clarify it during that time. It's about moving it from idea to information to understanding to action.

“To create a system for effective use during the limited time, it's crucial to employ all the time available after our appointment. During periods without the team, we have to build relationships with each player. It's essential to invest time communicating regularly, we need to watch them play, sense their presence. Relying only on those 50 days, we have no chance.”

Upcoming Matches

The coach is focusing on the last two in the qualifying campaign – facing Serbia at home and in Albania. England have guaranteed qualification by winning all six games without conceding a goal. But there will be no easing off; on the contrary. Now is the moment to strengthen the squad's character, to maintain progress.

“We are both certain that our playing approach must reflect everything that is good of English football,” Barry says. “The fitness, the flexibility, the physicality, the work ethic. The England jersey must be difficult to earn but light to wear. It should feel like a cape instead of heavy armour.

“To make it light, we need to provide a style that allows them to play freely as they do in club games, that resonates with them and lets them release restrictions. They need to reduce hesitation and focus more on action.

“There are morale boosts for managers in the first and final thirds – playing out from the back, attacking high up. However, in midfield in that part of the ground, we feel the game has become stuck, particularly in the Premier League. All teams are well-prepared currently. They can organize – defensive shapes. Our aim is to focus on accelerating the game across those 24 metres.”

Passion for Progress

His desire for development is relentless. While training for the top coaching badge, he had concerns about the presentation, especially as his class featured big names including former players. For self-improvement, he went into the most challenging environments imaginable to improve his talks. One was HMP Walton in his home city of Liverpool, and he trained detainees in a football drill.

Barry graduated as the best in his year, with his thesis – focusing on set-pieces, for which he analysed 16,154 throw-ins – was published. Lampard included impressed and he recruited the coach to his team at Chelsea. After Lampard's dismissal, it was telling that the team dismissed nearly all assistants but not Barry.

His replacement at Chelsea became Tuchel, and, four months later, he and Barry won the Champions League. When Tuchel was dismissed, Barry remained in the setup. But when Tuchel re-emerged in Germany, he recruited Barry away from London to rejoin him. English football's governing body view them as a partnership akin to Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland.

“I’ve never seen anything like Thomas {in terms of personality and methodology|in character and approach|