Trippier delivers it like Beckham as

Wing-back is at the heart of stunning success imported straight from the training ground

CHIEF FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT in Nizhny Novgorod

It has been a tough few days for Steve Holland but he will deservedly gain huge credit for England’s devastating effectiveness at set-pieces, which has become a resounding feature of their World Cup campaign, their prime weapon being the right foot of Kieran Trippier. The defender’s delivery is Beckhamesque.

England’s goals were forged on the training ground – where, unfortunately for the assistant manager, he had also been photographed holding a teamsheet during an open training session.

But it is not just Holland working on those plays. Allan Russell, the Scottish former forward who is being employed as a strikers coach for this World Cup, is key to them also – and the delightful way England constructed John Stones’s second goal from a Trippier free-kick apparently had his imprint on it.

That goal, like four of the six, was thanks to identifying that dead-ball delivery might well be the key to this tournament, where well-drilled defences deny space. More than half the goals scored so far have come from that route. It also means that this is, quite possibly, the best-coached England team in decades and certainly one who are following the instructions of their manager and his staff, and working to a creative plan they have devised.

No one would suggest Panama are either well-drilled or disciplined, and their brutal approach unravelled not long after they got away with one when Gabriel Gomez’s forearm smashed Jesse Lingard. They lost their heads, they lost their way and they lost this fixture, with England remaining cool in the stifling heat of Nizhny Novgorod.

Holland and Gareth Southgate have both spoken of the importance of set-pieces, in both not conceding them and taking advantage of them. But, even then, no one really expected Trippier to become quite so potent in providing the ammunition. Every time he stands over the ball, he