Phil Neville attaches immense importance to looking smart so it is no surprise to see he has prepared for his most important game as England’s manager by having a haircut.

The result is, to put it politely, severe. It seems Neville’s instructions to his French barber got lost in translation. “A disaster,” he declares. “I needed an interpreter. It’s called a 10-day haircut, which means in 10 days it will be better.”

By then Neville could yet be polishing his shoes and pressing that hallmark waistcoat for a World Cup final. First, though, his Lionesses must win two games, the first against Norway in Le Havre on Thursday night.

It is a quarter-final brimming with subplots. How far will the sickness virus infecting the England camp spread? Might defenders Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright recover in time to play? And how much will Neville’s side miss their captain, Steph Houghton, should she fail to overcome an ankle injury?

Throw in a heatwave and a fairly impregnable-looking Norway defence which should be very much at home in a city constructed by the pioneer of reinforced concrete, Auguste Perret, and the BBC really does have a proper prime-time drama. Neville’s revelations that his wife, Julie, has been lighting candles and saying prayers for the team at the family home in Manchester only heightens the human interest.

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As an anticipated record television audience tunes in, England’s manager trusts months spent road-testing his beloved rotation policy and implementing a new, almost Spanish, playing style will be fully vindicated.

“I’m a great believer in looking in my players’ eyes,” says a coach who hopes to at least emulate England’s 2015 achievement of finishing third at the last World Cup in Canada. “The look in their eyes today is relaxed, happy and like they’re ready to win.”

Phil Neville sports his new haircut in the England pre-match press conference. Photograph: John Walton/PA

Neville often talks about “living or dying” by a “non-negotiable” possession-based philosophy and his impressive serenity perhaps stems from this almost fatalistic attitude.

“I lost my job at Manchester United, I lost my job at Valencia – it happens,” he says. “Football’s like that. But I don’t go into games thinking about losing, I go in thinking I’m going to have fun and do the best I can. That’s my mentality. My wife’s different, she thinks about ‘what ifs’.

“I prefer to think we’ve played four World Cup games, won four and kept three clean sheets but my wife gets emotional because she knows what it all means to everyone. Every squad member has 15 or 16 people following them around France. They’ve been driving sometimes 15 or 16 hours to games and they’re creating lifelong memories and friendships. It might seem emotional and sentimental but that’s how it feels. I’ve even had a message from my brother Gary. It said ‘Good luck’ and there was an emoji. From him, that’s love.”

In reality Neville is extremely close to his brother as well as his mother, Jill, and twin sister, Tracey, the England netball coach. Such details are a source of fascination to French journalists who have dubbed England’s emotionally intelligent manager “The Benevolent Leader” and even seem interested in Neville’s revelation that his son, Harvey, has just passed his driving theory test.

The Lionesses manager won numerous plaudits for a candid, yet measured, deconstruction of Cameroon’s appalling behaviour as England won 3-0 in Valenciennes last Sunday in a game punctuated by stamping, spitting and threatened sit-down protests. “Afterwards, everyone was in shock,” Neville said. “Then, when we got back to the hotel, Greg Clarke, the FA chairman, made a fantastic speech to the players praising their behaviour in such difficult circumstances. They now know they’re mentally strong – that’s another barrier overcome.”

Clarke and his FA colleagues admire Neville the man and the motivator but his lack of big-game managerial experience dictates no one is sure how good a pure football coach he is. Time will tell but certain signs are encouraging. If England’s frequent inability to sustain his possession game for 90 minutes remains a worry, Ellen White’s progress is indicative of a manager blessed with the welcome knack of improving players.

Ellen White has been described as ‘a Van Nistelrooy, a Shearer, an Owen’ by England manager Phil Neville. Photograph: Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

“Elle’s taken her game to another level,” says Neville. “People thought she was a grafter, a hard worker who did a job for the team. But I’ve not seen a better centre-forward in this tournament. You’re seeing a player at the absolute maximum of her ability and belief. She’s scored three of her four goals with her weaker foot. I dread to think what will happen when she starts kicking with her right.

“We’ve had to teach her to hold back the hard way, to wait for those big moments when the ball drops in the six-yard box. For six months she looked at me as if I had a horn on my head for telling her to stop running. Now she’s a Van Nistelrooy, a Shearer, an Owen, that ultimate predator. All she thinks about now is goals.”

Norway are without Ada Hegerberg, their own star forward whose dissatisfaction with the politics of her country’s FA prompted her to shun the national team. “In terms of system, physicality and technically, they tick every box,” says Neville. “Norway look to have a cause. Maybe Ada Hegerberg not coming has given them that cause, to prove that they can win without her. That siege mentality’s always a good thing.”