🔗 Share this article

Ten years back, the England assistant coach competed at a lower division club. Now, he's dedicated supporting the head coach win the World Cup next summer. His journey from player to coach commenced with a voluntary role coaching youngsters. He remembers, “Evening sessions, a partial pitch, organizing 11-a-side … deflated balls, scarce bibs,” and he was hooked. He had found his destiny.

Staggering Ascent

His advancement stands out. Starting in a senior role at Wigan, he built a reputation with creative training and great man-management. His stints with teams included elite sides, and he held international positions for Ireland, Belgium, and Portugal. His players include stars like world-class talents. Today, as part of Team England, he's fully immersed, the “pinnacle” as he describes it.

“Everything starts with a dream … However, I hold that passion overcomes challenges. You have the dream but then you bring it down: ‘How can we achieve it, gradually?’ We dream about winning the World Cup. But dreams won’t get it done. We have to build a methodical process enabling us to maximize our opportunities.”

Obsession with Details

Dedication, focusing on tiny aspects, defines Barry’s story. Toiling around the clock day and night, the coaching duo push hard at comfort zones. Their strategies involve mental assessments, a plan for hot conditions for the World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and fostering teamwork. Barry emphasizes the national team spirit and dislikes phrases like “international break”.

“It's not time off or a rest,” Barry says. “It was vital to establish a setup that attracts the squad and, secondly, they feel so stretched that returning to club duty feels easier.”

Greedy Coaches

Barry describes himself and the head coach as “very greedy”. “Our goal is to master all parts of the match,” he declares. “We seek to command the entire field and we dedicate most of our time to. Our responsibility to not only anticipate of the trends and to lead and innovate. It's an ongoing effort with a mindset of solving issues. And to simplify complexity.

“We have 50 days alongside the squad prior to the World Cup. We need to execute a complex game that gives us a tactical advantage and we must clarify it in that period. We need to progress from idea to information to knowledge to execution.

“To build a methodology for effective use during the limited time, we must utilize the whole 500 we’ll have had since we took the job. When the squad is away, we need to foster connections among them. It's essential to invest time in calls with players, observing them live, understand them, connect with them. If we just use the 50 days, we have no chance.”

Final Qualifiers

Barry is preparing for the final pair of World Cup qualifiers – versus Serbia in London and away to Albania. The team has secured a spot in the tournament with six wins out of six without conceding a goal. But there will be no easing off; on the contrary. Now is the moment to reinforce the team’s identity, to maintain progress.

“The manager and I agree that the style of play should represent the best aspects about the Premier League,” Barry says. “The athleticism, the adaptability, the robustness, the integrity. The England jersey should be harder than ever to get yet easy to carry. It ought to be like a superhero's cape and not body armour.

“For it to feel easy, we need to provide an approach that enables them to play freely like they do every week, that feels natural and allows them to take the handbrake off. They need to reduce hesitation and focus more on action.

“There are morale boosts available to trainers at both ends of the pitch – building from the defense, attacking high up. But in the middle area in that part of the ground, it seems football is static, especially in England's top flight. Everybody has so much information now. They understand tactics – defensive shapes. We are really trying to speed up play through midfield.”

Drive for Growth

The coach's thirst to get better is relentless. While training for the Uefa pro licence, he was worried over the speaking requirement, since his group included stars including former players. To enhance his abilities, he sought out the most challenging environments available to him to practise giving them. One was HMP Walton in his home city of Liverpool, where he also took inmates in a football drill.

He earned his license as the best in his year, and his dissertation – focusing on set-pieces, in which he examined thousands of throw-ins – was published. Lampard included impressed and he hired Barry to his team at Chelsea. When Frank was fired, it spoke volumes that Chelsea removed most of his staff but not Barry.

Lampard’s successor at Stamford Bridge took over, within months, they secured European glory. When he was let go, Barry remained under Graham Potter. But when Tuchel re-emerged with Bayern, he brought Barry over from Chelsea and back alongside him. The FA see them as a double act similar to Southgate and Holland.

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