Anthony Barry: The English coach helping Thomas Tuchel
Barry’s first coaching job after retiring as a player was as assistant manager at Wigan, but he became first-team coach at Chelsea in the summer of 2020 after impressing Frank Lampard on the Uefa Pro License course.
When Lampard was sacked in January 2021, he was replaced by Tuchel, retained Barry and won the Champions League within a few months.
During this time, Barry also spread his wings to international football; He worked as an assistant coach with the Republic of Ireland before taking on the same role under Roberto Martinez; first in Belgium, then in Portugal.
This has allowed him to coach at the World Cup and European Championship, as well as work with some of the world’s best, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Kevin de Bruyne.
Barry was reunited with Tuchel taking him to Bayern Munich in 2023.
“This is a relationship that develops along the way,” Barry said. “We have become closer and closer in a working capacity and then socially.
“We spend a lot of time together talking, working, fighting, building teams – but he is a person and character that I admire and admire.”
Barry is the only English coach in Tuchel’s core support team. He, along with Henrique Hilario, Nico Mayer and James Melbourne, joined Tuchel in signing a new contract until 2028.
Known as an innovative and enthusiastic coach, Barry is also an expert in set pieces. A former midfielder, he wrote a thesis as part of his Pro Licence, in which he analyzed 17,000 throw-ins.
But he doesn’t buy the narrative that set-pieces will be more important than ever in a World Cup that will include drinks breaks and play effectively divided into quarters.
“I’m not sure he’ll play a bigger role,” he said. “I think the set pieces have always been huge.
“I think it’s really a trend at the moment; it’s really being talked about on social media. It’s almost become football plus set pieces, but Thomas and I don’t see it that way.
“I think all the big teams have always been good at set-pieces. I just think there’s more attention being paid to it now. People talk about it like it’s more important, but for us it’s always been a big part of the game and it will be in the USA as well.”
