England assistant coach Anthony Barry was critical of his side’s first-half display against Croatia, saying it was a “complicated and confusing” opening 45 minutes.
Harry Kane gave England the lead twice in Dallas, first through a re-taken penalty and second through a well-placed header, but Croatia pegged the Three Lions back on both occasions as their defending was found wanting.
Barry, who is Thomas Tuchel’s trusted assistant and was with him at Bayern Munich, then gave a punchy interview to ITV before heading into the dressing room to speak to the players.
“A complicated and confusing first half from us, really,” he told ITV reporter Gabriel Clarke, in a forthright verdict of the first-half.
“I think a lot of nervous energy early on. Maybe that should be accepted, and maybe expected in the opening game of a World Cup.
“From there, then we made some decisions where the energy was not free in our mind, playing long when we should play short, playing short when we should play long, really not playing through the gaps so not allowing us to accelerate our game the way we wanted to.
“Then you think the penalty would free us up, allow us to play more like us, look more like ourselves, but again we fall back into some fearful patterns, and yeah… we’ve always been able to rely on set pieces.
“We get the second goal again. We’re hoping that’s the moment that would allow us to move forward in the game, but okay, we concede the second goal later on, and now we have to speak about that at halftime.”
Yet whatever Barry and Tuchel said to their players at half-time seemed to work, as Jude Bellingham scored within minutes of the restart and England very much on top early in the second-half.
Marcus Rashford secured the three points in the 85th minute with a well-taken finish as the Three Lions got themselves up and running in North America with victory in Texas.
