Scot helps strikers in Southgate’s new regime
England’s goalscorers were coached this week ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Scotland on Saturday by a former Scottish striker who had a long playing career north of the border.
Allan Russell, 36, styles himself the “world’s No1 attacking coach” and was used by Gareth Southgate to take an individual session with the team’s attacking players at St George’s Park.
Southgate watched as Russell put a select group of England players through their exercises. Marcus Rashford, Jermain Defoe, Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane were all coached by Russell, who had been brought in by the Football Association to offer the players a new perspective in the build-up to this qualifier and the friendly against France in Paris on Tuesday. He is working on a consultancy basis and was with the England team in March as well.
Russell has also worked with Saido Berahino, Andre Gray, Ashley Fletcher, Aleksandar Mitrovic as well as the FA through his company Superior Striker.
He played for the likes of Hamilton Academical, St Mirren, Macclesfield Town and Kilmarnock before he went to the United States, where he played for Carolina Railhawks and Orange County Blues.
Southgate has tried to vary the build-up for his players with a team bonding trip to train with the Royal Marines in Devon over the weekend, and then two days off. He has said in the past that England teams have no option but to change their approach because what has been tried up until now has failed to produce teams capable of competing at the business end of tournaments.
Meanwhile, Jack Butland says he
feared that his playing career was over after a year out recovering from the horrific ankle break he suffered on England duty.
The Stoke goalkeeper, 24, is back in the England squad, a sign of how highly he is rated by Southgate, after playing just five Premier League games since the injury away to Germany in March 2016.
“Being out for so long makes you stronger,” he said. “Sometimes you reach your lowest point. Times when you don’t know if you are going to play again, when the next operation or injection might be.” After suffering the stress fracture, Butland was told he would be back in three months but suffered a setback in pre-season and then another as he warmed up before his proposed comeback last December. He finally returned, after a series of operations, in late April.
Butland said: “It feels extremely, extremely good to be back. It can be a lonely place when you are injured. It was the drive and belief of wanting to get back to where I was that kept me going.”