Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland received high praise for putting a smile back on the faces of England fans last summer while the work of another member of the Three Lions coaching staff has gone quietly unnoticed.
Allan Russell, who has been working with England’s senior national team since March 2017, believes he is the world’s best striker coach because of the in-depth analysis he puts into creating individual shooting drills.
The Scotsman, who scored just nine goals in English football while plying his trade for Macclesfield, Mansfield and Forest Green, is currently preparing the likes of Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho for England’s first Euro 2020 qualifier against Czech Republic on Friday.
England's Allan Russell put Sportsmail through their paces ahead of the international break
Striker coach Russell gave an in-depth explanation about the drills before Sportsmail took part
Russell uses unique equipment to train strikers such as Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford
The drills relied heavily on movement and passes were played at top-flight match speed
Russell was credited for creating England’s unique set-piece routines which were extremely successful during last summer’s World Cup in Russia as well as working one-one-on with the nation's best attacking talent.
The 38-year-old, who privately coaches Premier League forwards including Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend for a reported £1,000 per session, put Sportsmail through their paces before explaining what makes the ultimate striker.
Russell’s drills rely heavily on movement so he told myself and a colleague from a rival newspaper to warm up in order to be ready for the exercise he had laid on.
The first part involved studying his iPad as you had to remember a combination of two colours and then run to those respective coloured cones on the edge of the area.
One of Russell’s colleagues would then ping in a pass to your feet ‘at match speed’ and you had to take a touch before unleashing a shot past two fake defenders and a goalkeeper.
Russell stressed it was all about getting the ball out under your feet before hitting the ball towards goal. I found this part of the exercise easier than the drills inside the box as my first touch is generally good.
Russell (centre) is all smiles as he trains two reporters by using his unique striker drills
Russell congratulations the two reporters after they finished the striking drills
Russell then sat down to speak to the two reporters he put through their paces in west London
The Scotsman has been working with England's national senior team since March 2017
Russell (left) is pictured with Steve Holland and Gareth Southgate on Tuesday afternoon
I was impressed with one of my shots which sailed over the keeper and into the net but I quickly had to regain my composure and breath to move onto drill No 2.
Russell now wanted to test our movement so we had to play a one-two with the England coach before losing our man and taking a shot inside the area. This again was pretty straightforward as you were played in quite close the keeper so could place the ball into the corner of the net.
The third and fourth parts involved running towards the near post to try to poke the ball home and then running out to the penalty spot to control the ball before getting a shot off on goal.
I struggled with this because I tried to flick the ball towards goal rather than just make sure I made solid contact in order to score points during the challenge.
The crosses by one of Russell’s assistants were fizzed in at you to replicate how fast the ball moves during Premier League games so you had to adjust your body in order to control it and then get your
