England vs Sweden: Inside the mind of Gareth Southgate - by a man who was there on that fateful evening in '96

Gareth Southgate has made international football management look a breeze in Russia so far this summer.

With the winds of change blowing through the English game, former team-mate Darren Anderton believes that’s just par for a man who made playing the game look similarly facile.

Anderton played alongside Southgate at both Euro ’96 and the 1998 World Cup in France, lining up as a wing-back alongside a back three that has since become England’s modus operandi during their run to the last eight.

It wasn’t a natural position for the then Spurs winger, who much preferred marauding forward rather than combining attacking intent with defensive donkey work.

It did, however, provide him the opportunity to see Southgate operate at close quarters alongside the likes of Tony Adams and Stuart Pearce on home soil and with Sol Campbell and Adams two years’ later across the Channel.

Those two tournaments, under Terry Venables and then Glenn Hoddle, clearly had a huge impact on the now England boss, with the laidback and open approach of this side very much a mirror of the approach taken by the former when football almost came home.

“For me, he made the game look very easy, and that transition into international management has looked pretty easy too,” says Anderton. “Maybe international management suits him more. I think it probably did as a player too.

“He’s very thoughtful and the way that he gets the team to play the system that we had back then in Euro ’96 and World Cup ’98 means that you get your best players on the ball in the areas you want them on the ball – in the final third in between the midfield and centre forward.”

Kieran Trippier has been a revelation as wing-back, pouring forward and providing quality delivery from the right. Ashley Young has perhaps been a more reserved presence on the left but his experienced head in one of the most youthful England sides to have played at a World Cup has also proved invaluable.

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It’s an indication of the evolution of the full-back that both men would be equally happy playing as either wingers or conventional full-backs – something that neither Anderton nor his wing-back colleague, Steve McManaman, would have relished.

“As a winger, for my whole life, being at the youth team at Portsmouth, I was used to being a right winger,” says Anderton.

“I had that protection of a full-back behind because my comfort zone was being a winger and attacking full-backs. If a winger starts coming at me then, yes, I’ll give it a go and I’ll try and defend properly but that’s not my comfort zone or Steve McManaman’s.

“Terry (Venables) used it as a very attack-minded system but you can go either way. The reality is that most full-backs now are just like wingers. I remember Christian Ziege at Spurs. As a winger he was superb but as a full-back I would love to play against him.”

Now splitting his time between the south coast of England and the west coast of America, the angular Anderton still looks as though he could do a shift out wide despite playing his last competitive match a decade ago. A dislocated shoulder aside, Southgate is similarly good shape.

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As is an England defence which, Anderton believes, has been moulded in the image of the manager.

“He was just one of the lads – you knew he was a very clever lad, though,” says Anderton. “He spoke well, his knowledge of the game was good. The way he played was clever too. He was underrated in my opinion.

“Yes he was at Palace and then not top, top clubs but when he came in (to the England side) he made a difference in that system because he was so comfortable on the ball.

“He didn’t make last gasp tackles because he always read the game so well. As a player you probably appreciated his quality more than fans. He did his job properly so it didn’t look all-action. He would come off the pitch and not even look like he had a sweat on at times.”

That’s not an accusation that could be levelled at any of the England side after an exhausting night in Moscow on Tuesday. Even the usually placid Southgate cut an increasingly animated presence on the touchline.

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The cool heads kept by England’s penalty takers and goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, would, though, doubtless have earned the approval of a man who knows what it’s like to take a penalty under pressure.

Anderton played in that Euro ’96 semi-final at Wembley when England came within an ace of reaching a first major final for 30 years.

It’s an opportunity now tantalisingly within reach again.

“You build through a tournament and hopefully get all the way,” he says.

“I just love the way that he has given the players the freedom. I was watching the Panama game the other morning and just thought ‘this is great because everything that’s important in the game we’re doing well’. I see no reason why that shouldn’t continue.”

England’s last win in a quarter-final came against Spain at Wembley on a sticky Saturday afternoon 22 years ago.

A nation crosses its fingers and waits to see if history can repeat itself against Sweden in Samara.