Steve Holland Assistant manager
The former Crewe manager joined Chelsea in 2009 and worked his way through the ranks, from reserves to first-team where he worked under André-Villas Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benítez, José Mourinho, Guus Hiddink and Antonio Conte. Full-time with England since last summer, he takes a hands-on approach to train, overseeing many of the drills, and works on tactical gameplans with Gareth Southgate.
Allan Russell Attacking coach
Southgate has credited Russell, a Scot who enjoyed a nomadic career in the lower leagues, with England’s new-found prowess at attacking set plays, having taken him on to his staff a year ago. Russell experienced positional specialist coaching during his time in the US with Carolina RailHawks and Orange County Blues and works with the players on finishing, movement and penalties, aiming to give them an edge.
The former Manchester City, Huddersfield and Cardiff goalkeeper turned Wales coach was brought into the England set-up by Sam Allardyce and retained under Southgate. He has combined his duties with employment alongside Allardyce at Crystal Palace and Everton but is now effectively full-time. The Welshman works with Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland and Nick Pope.
Pippa Grange Head of people and team development
Grange studied sports psychology at Loughborough and spent 20 years working in Australian sport. She started work at the FA in January and is embedded with the squad in Repino, where her task is to work on building the psychological resistance of the players. She tends not to work directly with the playing staff, but instead speaks with Southgate and his coaches to identify their aims. She has encouraged the players to be more open and to share personal stories, even via the media, to help shed inhibitions.
Rhys Long Head of performance analysis and insight
Long was recruited in February 2016 from a similar position at the Welsh Rugby Union. He is in Russia but is ordinarily based at St George’s Park and oversees a team of 17 analysts supporting England’s national teams, offering technical expertise to assist team performance. He had spent nine years at the WRU and had previous stints at Wasps and with the British & Irish Lions.
Steve O’Brien Men’s lead performance analyst
O’Brien joined the FA in early 2003, initially basing himself at Loughborough University, before moving to St George’s Park to become performance analysis manager in 2012. He and Baker offer detailed video analysis for the players to assess their own performances, as well as those of the opposition. “Steve paints really clear pictures for the players,” the former under-16s coach Dan Micciche told the Training Ground Guru website last month. “Video analysis is massive – you can really paint pictures for players before training and games and reviewing as well, which can save your voice as a coach and get you into the topic of a session a lot quicker.”
Mike Baker Men’s senior performance analyst
Described by the former England under-19 coach Noel Blake as “an outstanding analyst with a great insight and understanding of the game”, Baker worked as a performance analyst at Team Bath across a variety of sports, including netball, football, British bobsleigh and skeleton, judo and GB volleyball. He has been at the FA since 2007 and was promoted to his current position three years ago.
Daniel Parker Performance analyst
Parker joined the FA in August 2013 after stints at Notts County, within the sports medicine department, and Derby. His responsibilities at the Championship club included filming and coding of the academy and schoolboy games through ProZone, as well as creating and editing motivational videos. He is a key member of O’Brien’s team in Russia.