Anthony Gordon:

I think just more when I say we didn’t perform the way we wanted to, I thought the performances were good and we played well, but in training the training sessions were as high a level as you would have ever seen. So I just didn’t feel like that replicated on the pitch.

We did well, but I feel like if we would have played how we trained—which is not always easy because they’re two different environments—we would have dominated anyone we would have played, I felt, because the intensity we trained with and the attacking power we trained with was at the highest level. And I think that’s what bred so much confidence into the squad and into the manager.

But tournament football is really difficult because there’s so many twists and turns. I felt like that Mexico game, although I said it was the best experience of my life, kind of set us up a little bit. I remember it took me about four days to recover from all the emotion. It took a lot out of me emotionally. The travel was tough, obviously, and Jordan Henderson falling—I felt like that was a massive moment in the tournament. In the Norway game, I remember feeling really tired and fatigued and couldn’t perform maybe how I would have liked to.

So, I feel like it’s hard to know the right answer all the time, but Torma football throws things at you that you wouldn’t have in training. Although we were training really well, it’s completely different environments because you don’t come under that much adversity as you would in a moment like that.”

Unironically, my favorite part of the international break is watching England train on YouTube. They are so damn clinical, I could watch a full 90 minutes of them training.