Southgate club means players really want to play for their country

beliefs or nobody would have looked at the final four in the World Cup and thought that would be the final four.”

The other knock-on effect has been that everyone now wants to be part of the England set-up because of the atmosphere in the camp and that creates its own benefits.

Players do not sulk when they are not in the starting line-up but are happy to play their part from the bench.

Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard and Jadon Sancho were all substitutes and helped change the game against Croatia.

Southgate also believes the likes of Fabian Delph, playing and winning the title at Manchester City, have pushed on because they have learned from Pep Guardiola.

He added: “We had players who could genuinely come in and have an attacking affect on the game. In the summer towards the end of the tournament the first team had become the first team and the other guys were great back-up but weren’t coming in and being able to change the game so much.

“When you’ve got Dele and Jesse and Sancho and Ruben LoftusCheek on the bench, that starts to look different. We knew the balance of our midfield needed to be right from the beginning of the game against Croatia.

“Delph was excellent. It gave us stability and it meant we could get tight to their midfield which was so important. We knew if we needed to accelerate we had those options to do it.

“Their experiences with their club are also going to help us as a national team – there is no doubt about that.”