This is an updated version of an article first published in January 2025.England have a breakout star from this World Cup, but it is not one of the players.Anthony Barry, Thomas Tuchel’s assistant manager, has caught the nation’s attention with his half-time interviews in the United States, where he has achieved the rare feat of offering insight, depth and some caustic criticism, all in the space of two snatched minutes.In the Croatia game, Barry offered an unusually piquant assessment of a first-half performance that, to most observers, seemed to be largely encouraging, calling it “complicated and confusing”. Then, in the interval of the Ghana match, he gave a detailed critique of why England were struggling to penetrate their opponents’ defence, pointing out that they were around “10m-12m deeper than the last two opponents they played against”.Given the low expectations that surround most live TV football interviews — let alone those conducted at half-time of a major match — they have proved must-watch television, and all the more so given Barry was largely an unknown quantity prior to this summer, despite a career that has included spells with Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.Barry, who joined the England staff when Tuchel arrived in January 2025, has made quite the impression on his players, too. “Anthony’s very honest, straight to the point, and that’s the best way to be,” defender Nico O’Reilly told reporters earlier this week. “You need it. If you’re not doing something right, or you’re not doing so well, having someone there to tell you is the right thing to do.”His decisiveness in front of the camera has not surprised John Coleman, whom he worked for as a player across two spells at Accrington Stanley before emerging as a coach.Coleman, who has been in management and coaching for 30 years after a long non-league playing career, says Barry has invested in himself in every possible way as a coach, including taking courses on public speaking.“At the Croatia game, I thought he was measured and composed but got his point across really well,” Coleman says. “Maybe he caught a few people off guard because clearly there were things about the performance he wanted to improve. There was a bit of understated fury. The more he spoke, I think people realised he was speaking a lot of sense.”Yet if Barry’s speaking is straightforward, his coaching journey has been anything but.When Accrington Stanley travelled to Scotland for a series of pre-season friendlies in the summer of 2005, the first game was against the wonderfully named Dundonald Bluebell, a club from Fife, then competing in the country’s eastern junior league.Accrington would finish that 2005-06 campaign as champions of the National League, English football’s fifth tier, an achievement nobody foresaw given the limited finances available, but they were expected to easily win that friendly against a team made up of amateur players.Their manager John Coleman had tried to make it a relaxed trip. He did not want to overburden his squad with training and instead tried to build fitness and tactics through games. It was as much a social getaway, where newcomers bonded with their team-mates over drinks, but on reflection, Coleman thinks the start of the camp was too laid-back. “It showed in the performance,” he admits.Anthony Barry in action for Accrington in 2015 (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)While Accrington would win that game, it was only narrowly, and having been behind at half-time. When Coleman launched into the players in the dressing room, the response from one of them took him by surprise. The latest arrival at Accrington was Anthony Barry, then a 19-year-old midfielder whose experience amounted to a childhood in Everton’s youth system and, following release, a short period with Coventry City’s reserves.“He wasn’t slow in coming forward with his opinion,” recalls Coleman, who took turns with his assistant Jimmy Bell and first-team coach Paul Cook to remind the lad who was in charge. “We all jumped down his throat,” Coleman laughs. “But it showed to the staff and the rest of the squad that he had the guts to stand up for himself in a new environment. He had something about him.”