Anthony Barry once watched 17,000 throw-ins for his coursework, now he's plotting England World Cup glory

As someone who once watched nearly 17,000 throw-ins as part of a year-long study, it's fair to say Anthony Barry is a details man.

So it comes as a surprise to hear that the secret to England winning this summer's World Cup, according to Thomas Tuchel's right-hand man, is the "brotherhood" that will be struck between the players.

Barry says it is this factor, more so than any technical or tactical fineprint, is what will fuel the Three Lions' pursuit of World Cup glory, which begins next month in Dallas against Croatia.

"We wanted to build a connection," England assistant Barry tells Mirror Football . "We wanted to build a brotherhood and we wanted to build a team that wanted to be together.

"When I was working in club football, I used to know from leaving Chelsea or Bayern Munich to go into my international break which teams were going to win.

"Because I could tell in the way they walked out the door. I could tell the way they wanted to join their international team-mates. Now we wanted to build something here that the players wanted to come to.

"We wanted them to arrive here and for it to feel like home, to have familiarity. We want them to have connections to each other but also a connection to the game model. Because when Thomas and I took the job, we probably only had about 60 training days before the World Cup.

"So how much could we actually impact them? Of course we want to give them a game model that they like, that they enjoy, that resonates with the Premier League ."

Barry adds: "At the end of the day, we can only impact it so much and we think the team spirit, the connection is the petrol in the car.

"It's what makes the difference at international level and we will be together for seven or eight weeks in the US. You have to go there with people that want to spend time together, with the right energy and we think this is the key difference maker in tournament football."

Barry's use of "brotherhood" and "connections" are bang on message. He was speaking to us 24 hours before Tuchel employed the exact same language to justify several controversial choices in his 26-man World Cup squad, announced on Friday.

High-profile players such as Phil Foden , Cole Palmer and Harry Maguire were not selected - with the news leaking out the evening before England's official announcement.

Maguire went public on Thursday night with his disappointment, issuing a statement on his "shock". But Tuchel, a serial trophy winner with Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund , Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, was unrepentant about his picks.

Tuchel said: "Teams win championships, it is as simple as that. Mostly, it's about energy, connection and the collectivity. Everything I know about international football is about cohesion and about chemistry."

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And in an exclusive conversation at England's St George's Park base, Barry opens up on his relationship with Tuchel, his rapid rise into the upper echelons of coaching and why England firmly believe that a 60 years of hurt can finally end Stateside this summer.

Barry's ascent to the inner circle of Tuchel's World Cup staff - which must be considered extraordinary given its relative speed against the backdrop of a career that only reached League One - began with Accrington's Under-16s before he worked his way up the ranks to Wigan Athletic, until the Latics went into administration.

"I thought this was one of the worst moments of my career," Barry admits. "Everything we had built over the last three years with Paul Cook was all about to fall down but it turned out to be a sliding doors moment."

That moment was Barry being approached by Frank Lampard , the then manager of Chelsea in the summer of 2020.

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England centurion Lampard was not rubbing shoulders with Liverpool-born Barry outside of the classrooms while they studied for their UEFA Pro Licence together, but the current Coventry City boss had been particularly struck by a dissertation his fellow student wrote in the latter stages of their training modules.

"I had no awareness that [Premier League clubs] were even watching or even knew who I was and one of them turned out to be Frank Lampard's Chelsea," he says. "I was a nobody in the game, I had no real profile to become a coach.

"I was too nervous and too shy to try and be best mates with Frank Lampard [when on the course], I didn't think he'd want to be best mates with me, so it was never the case that we were so close. I was too in awe of Frank to try and socialise with him.

"It was more Frank's appreciation of the work he'd seen me do across the course rather than a personal interaction. It was something I hadn't seen coming. I think he felt that I was just a different lens, a different way of working."

But given Barry's journey to this level comes without the support of a top-level playing career, how difficult has it been to get the buy-in from elite footballers, many of whom have always been destined for the very top?

"I think my identity as a coach came pretty quickly," he says. "And the way I coach has not changed. It was something that came naturally to me.

"I found a voice that and the manner in which I interact with players, that style has always been mine. It's probably what allowed my career to accelerate.

"In terms of being around these great players and these big teams, you have to grow. You are in such a rich environment that allows you to grow, it forces you to grow.

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"Of course, when you arrive at Chelsea at [the age of] 33, 34, I always say the big challenge for me was Thiago Silva.

"He was maybe two years older than me, I was coaching him how to defend the box, how to defend certain things, mainly working on defensive aspects.

"Thiago didn't speak English so you have all these challenges as a young coach but you just have to learn quickly.

"You make mistakes and you're fortunate enough to have elite coaches along the way, like Roberto Martinez [at Belgium], like Thomas Tuchel. It's important to quickly understand their methodologies."

Barry's relationship with Tuchel began when he was kept on by Chelsea following Lampard's sacking in January of 2021. Within six months the Londoners were celebrating a Champions League victory and the learning curve for the coach, who only turned 40 last week, was steep but hugely rewarding.

"It was six months of me basically being a sponge around one of the most elite coaches in the world and hopefully, over time, you eventually prove your worth," Barry says.

"I think a lot of people say it's been great to learn in such an environment and that is absolutely part of it, but at some stage you have to stop learning and show your worth. That is what I try to do every day.

"I still think it's strange to me and him sometimes how we actually arrived together, being so close in a working capacity and on a personal level. It wasn't like that in the beginning, he arrived at Chelsea as one of the most elite coaches in the world and when Frank left, Chelsea asked me to stay on, to join Thomas's staff.

"He arrived with a guy from Paris, two guys from Germany and a Hungarian guy; a world, world-class coaching staff. He was a world-class manager. So at the beginning I was just on the periphery, trying to learn and integrate into this staff that was already built.

"But over time, as I said, it was about trying to prove my worth, to develop and to become one of the most competent coaches in the world as well.

"This has always been a challenge for me, whether I achieve that or not, that is for other people to decide but these were the demands I put on myself. Over time, Thomas and I just became closer and closer in a working capacity.

"I think it helped Thomas as well that I was working with Belgium as well, working with Portugal, learning other methodologies that I could bring back to ours.

"So it just became a natural progression where it just became closer and closer. It was a difficult day for me, personally, when he left Chelsea.

"I stayed on again to continue with Graham Potter with no real idea if I would ever work with Thomas again.

The call eventually came when Tuchel accepted the Bayern Munich job in 2023 and now the pair are plotting world domination with the Three Lions, who will be based at Swope Soccer Villas, in Kansas City, Missouri, during the tournament.

"There were times in the last 15 or 16 months when we felt the World Cup was never going to come," he says. "It felt so far away, you have so little time with the players, sometimes you actually don't feel like a coach.

"But there's an inner belief in the staff that we can do it and there's an even bigger belief in the players, which is also nice to see.

"Of course there are a lot of hurdles to cross: eight games, the weather, and a lot of travel. But step by step we will try to get over them and we are just happy that it is here now.

"We have to have belief and we have to take confidence from the way we qualified, the way this team grew together from March and June, our first two camps. Thomas and I were doing a lot of experimenting, understanding the culture of the FA, understanding the dynamics of the team.

"I think we called up 40-45 players early on and in September, October and November we wanted to create this connection and this identity, which I think we got. And that is why the performances went in the way we did.

"It was really in this period, at the back end of November, that this group of players and staff, we thought it was coming along and developing the way we thought it would.

"So of course we arrive in the US hopefully with a healthy, fit group - fingers crossed, no injuries now - and we arrive there full of excitement, belief and determination to try and get it done.

"Thomas and I have never shied away from the mission from day one: we're here to win the World Cup. We are here to try and put the second star on the shirt."

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