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Thomas Tuchel has made Anthony Barry part of his coaching set-up for the third time, after working with him previously at Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
Barry, 38, has enjoyed a rapid rise, assisting Frank Lampard and Roberto Martinez, as well as Tuchel, who has named him as his England No 2.
‘We have a lot of parallels, how we work and how we see football,’ Barry has said of his relationship with Tuchel.
‘We try to push each other and to improve. That allows us to work at a very high level because we can be completely honest with each other. We talk very openly, discuss our ideas and always try to find the best solution.’
Barry is grateful for the coaching opportunities that have opened up to him, admitting he ‘didn’t enjoy’ his playing career in the lower leagues. The Everton academy product represented Accrington Stanley, Forest Green, Yeovil and Wrexham, where he retired in 2017.
After studying for his coaching badges following a serious knee injury at 24, Barry began with Accrington’s Under 16s. He became the youngest first-team coach in the Championship aged 30 when he was appointed by then Wigan manager Paul Cook.
Barry’s rise accelerated at St George’s Park, where he impressed Lampard as they studied for their UEFA pro licence together. As part of the course, Barry presented a dissertation in which he had analysed 17,000 throw-ins.
‘At Wigan, we were trying to get more possession in the game and as a coach I was looking for areas I could maybe develop the team and how could we get more possession,’ Barry said in 2022.
‘I looked into all the different ways and eventually came to set-pieces — can we use free-kicks or throw-ins? That’s where I landed at throw-ins and started to study them in more detail.
‘We analysed a full season in the Premier League and looked at 17,000 throw-ins. Some findings were game-changing in terms of how important throw-ins are.’
His work led to an ‘out of the blue’ approach from Lampard a year later to become part of Chelsea’s coaching staff.
Barry was retained when Tuchel took over in January 2021, with the Blues going on to win the Champions League.
He combined his Chelsea role by assisting Stephen Kenny at the Republic of Ireland, before being poached by Martinez to serve under him with Belgium and then Portugal.
Tuchel’s desire to work with Barry again led to Bayern negotiating a £1million fee to secure his services.
The new England boss said Barry’s work on set-pieces at Chelsea was on a ‘completely new level’, something he highlighted as being vital in tournament football. ‘All teams that went far in tournaments in recent years were teams that dominated set-pieces,’ Tuchel said earlier this year.
