Lucy Bronze acknowledges that Phil Neville is not quite the finished article but the right-back England’s manager labels “the world’s best” believes he has succeeded in confounding the doubters during the past month at France 2019.

“Phil’s said himself he’s not the best coach with the best tactics,” said Bronze as the Lionesses headed home after ending the World Cup in fourth place. “But he’s won over the doubters from the moment he stepped in.

“He’s wanted to create relationships with the players, fans and staff and he’s really done that. That’s helped us drive on at this tournament and become a better team.”

England conquer hearts and minds but USA take semi-final spoils Read more

The Lyon and England defender believes the former Manchester United full-back’s amalgam of emotional intelligence and big-game experience more than compensates for any deficiencies in other spheres – particularly as his assistant Bev Priestman is a “devil in the detail” type of coach.

“Phil’s man-management is world class so you have to allow him the time to concentrate on it and not get bogged down in the details,” said Priestman. “It means he can get the best out of every player.”

Bronze feels this arrangement plays to Neville’s strengths. “As a player at the highest level, Phil’s had those experiences and knows how to handle things a little better than other managers might,” she said.

Even so, regular England watchers have certain anxieties about Neville’s seeming obsession with building from the back and monopolising possession but his leading player has thoroughly bought into the stylistic changes implemented by England’s coach and remains unconcerned by his dogmatism.

“The way we got to the semi-finals [where England lost 2-1 to the United States] – unreal,” Bronze said. “We had the most possession of any team, we completed the most passes of any team. We pushed the USA to the end. Four years ago in Canada we were so happy with the bronze medal; now we’re disappointed not to have won the World Cup.”

If the 2-1 third-place play-off defeat by Sweden stripped a little gloss off things inside the dressing room, she was disguising it well. “We’ve definitely captured imaginations,” she said. “Now we have the Olympics [in Tokyo next year] to look forward to as Team GB. We have a home Euros in 2021 and we can only build on the momentum we’ve created.”

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To keep doing so England need to improve on the pitch but Bronze feels they are now within touching distance of eclipsing all-comers. “We’re a team with a high level at most things,” she said. “Set pieces, finishing, quality on the ball, defending. Now we need to push it so we’re the best at everything. There’s not anything we’re really poor at but we need to push every single thing to a new level.”

England fans now uneasily familiar with the 20-minute spells of slapdash defending which Neville’s side largely got away with in France think this is an area which requires addressing with some urgency. Bronze, though, sees things very differently.

“You can’t name any team that hasn’t had that,” she said. “I think that’s impossible in football. We can’t expect to spend 90 minutes on the ball when we’re playing the best teams in the world. You can’t do that. That’s the English media wanting us to play the perfect game. It’s not there – and we had 11 players in our squad who hadn’t been to a World Cup before.”