World Cup 2018: How Gareth Southgate copied Lincoln’s ‘love train’ and NBA plays to turn England into set-piece masters
Innovative Three Lions boss has drawn inspiration from far corners to lead side to quarter-finals
WE all remember Euro 2016.
England were humiliated by minnows Iceland with star striker Harry Kane inexplicably taking the bloody corners.
Two years later and Gareth Southgate has transformed the Three Lions from Euro flops into World Cup masters.
Only Belgium have scored more than England's nine - and six of those have come from set-pieces.
Before the glut in Russia, England had not scored from a set-piece during a major tournament since Matthew Upson against Germany in 2010.
At Euro 2012, the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016, England had taken 72 corners without a goal.
"Jordan Henderson seems to be taking a lot of responsibility in making certain game calls that need to be in place for the set-piece to occur."
Southgate had explained to Wright that he was interested in if he could apply basic NBA plays - the pick-and-roll, off-ball screens and constant motion - to football.
"In areas where he was specifically interested," Wright added, "he wanted to go deep."
Southgate was apparently "asking questions all night" as he watched the Timberwolves beat the Pelicans.
His curiosity has worked - England have used decoys, blocks and constant movement to create and find space to stunning effect.
The first of Harry Kane's two goals against Tunisia came after a decoy run allowed John Stones to power a header - with Kane picking up the rebound.
His dramatic injury-time winner came when Kane continued his motion to find a gap of space when the ball dropped and England could have had at least two more penalties in the game such was the chaos caused from set-plays.
John Stones' first goal against Panama came because Ashley Young blocked off a defender - setting a pick in basketball terms.
Stones' second came from a brilliant set-play routine that saw Trippier pass to Henderson to whip in a ball, before Harry Maguire knocked down a header for Raheem Sterling.
The Manchester City star missed from close-range but Stones was on hand to finish because he'd continued his motion.
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Southgate also has another secret weapon: striker coach Allan Russell.
The England boss has credited the Scotsman, who had a journeyman career, as being the mastermind behind the routines.
Russell, 37, moved to the US as a player in 2010 and it was there that he started developing a different way of coaching.
Inspired by NFL coaches training position-specific ways, Russell developed more specialised methods when he later became a coach.
He has worked with the forwards on finishing, movement and penalties and has created the Superior Striker programme which aims to create methods that mirror in-game actions.
Southgate said: "If anything, Allan is spending more time on the set pieces.
"We’d identified them as key in tournaments, and an element we felt we could improve upon.
"It helps if you have outstanding delivery and people who want to go and head the thing, of course, and we’ve got that.
";We’re giving it the right attention in training, and it was clear Panama were wary of it from the start.
"No matter how much you control the play at both ends, set plays are really important."
These obviously aren't entirely new concepts - Jose Mourinho's Chelsea were masters and blocking and using decoys and Pep Guardiola also travelled to the US during his managerial sabbatical to pick up tips from American sports.
But Gareth Southgate has made set-pieces a priority, with tournament football all about fine margins.
England have faced a small bit of criticism since the Colombia win that they are not creating enough chances from open play.
But Southgate doesn't see reliance on set-pieces as a weakness - he sees it as a strength and the result of England dominating matches.
"I think the style of our football gets us the free kicks and gets us the corners,” Southgate said.
"In the end, teams are stopping us by fouling us, and it's great if we are able to punish them like that.
"We can't overlook the fact we are controlling games, and so composed playing out from the back, that we are making teams work extra hard, get dragged out of place and having to dive in and make challenges they don't want to."