Fatigue at major tournaments has been a concern of England managers for years. Only last month, Sven Goran-Eriksson claimed Gareth Southgate would have to combat tiredness in Russia due to the relentless intensity of English football’s domestic calendar.

Eriksson, who took England to three major tournaments between 2001-06, was aligned with Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson in demanding a winter break as the cure to a problem which has led to a series of underwhelming returns in major finals.

The Premier League recently announced the introduction of a mid-season break for 2019-20 — too late for Southgate here but, then again, he believes the problem can be rectified in different ways.

Southgate’s No2, Steve Holland, does not often give interviews but when he does they are invariably fascinating. The former Chelsea coach reflected a belief among the backroom staff that their predecessors have failed to use the preparation time effectively and that they have identified four key aspects in their planning to help maximise performance.

“The first is what you do after the season ends going into a tournament,” he told Standard Sport. “Without being critical of anybody for one second here — because I only have the utmost respect for previous managers and coaches of England — for example, the last tournament England had, they came directly from the end of the season into a training camp. What have we done differently? Well, Gareth gave them seven days off — not just the Premier League players on the 13th [of May] but the FA Cup Final players on the 19th and then the Champions League lads the week after.

“That had a bit of an impact on our preparation but he was adamant that psychologically as much as physically, their bodies needed a breather. Our season is so demanding — nine, 10 months every week you have to be ready. It is the only country where you get those matches all year around.

“The second thing is we haven’t run the players. The model has been to only play football — it has been football training. Within that, there have obviously been physical elements we have focused on at certain times but we have not worked for more than 90 minutes in one session and we have really tried to work on sharpness and freshness rather than the players coming off exhausted. The season delivers that for them. Their engine at the end of a season is fine. It has been going for 10 months. One week’s rest isn’t going to break the engine. It is just a case of refreshing and getting the sharpness again. We are four weeks into that training schedule now.”

This change in approach helped England stay on the front foot against Tunisia on Monday and has also contributed to a genuine togetherness within the squad, aided further by Southgate’s determination to treat them as adults — yesterday’s day off was the latest in a series of down periods in which they were left to their own devices, trusted to act responsibly.

“The third thing is the psychological environment which has an impact on how a team look,” he continued.

“I think if they are happy — in any walk of life — there is a different spring in their step to if they aren’t. I feel a happiness within the group. They have had lots of windows to go home in the couple of weeks before flying to Russia. I’ve heard in the past that at one tournament before the players even arrived at the World Cup venue, they had had enough because they had been in a training camp for two-and-a-half weeks. So I think there have been good decisions made in those aspects to this point.”

England Fans in Volgograd 10 show all England Fans in Volgograd 1/10 England fans gather in Volgograd ahead of the team's World Cup clash against Tunisia Jeremy Selwyn 2/10 Supporters at the fan zone in Volgograd ahead of England's opening game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup PA 3/10 England fans near the World War II memorial complex Mamayev Kurgan, in Volgograd, Russia EPA 4/10 England fans attended a memorial service in the run-up to the game PA 5/10 England fan Billy Grant with Tunisia fans at the Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd PA 6/10 England football fans wave flags as theyr arrive in Volgograd AFP/Getty Images 7/10 An England fan waves a flag ahead of the start of the match in Volgograd Jeremy Selwyn 8/10 England fans in Russia ahead of England's opening game against Tunisia Jeremy Selwyn 9/10 An England and Tunisia fan stand side-by-side ahead of the game this evening Jeremy Selwyn 10/10 England and Tunisia fans in Volgograd Jeremy Selwyn 1/10 England fans gather in Volgograd ahead of the team's World Cup clash against Tunisia Jeremy Selwyn 2/10 Supporters at the fan zone in Volgograd ahead of England's opening game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup PA 3/10 England fans near the World War II memorial complex Mamayev Kurgan, in Volgograd, Russia EPA 4/10 England fans attended a memorial service in the run-up to the game PA 5/10 England fan Billy Grant with Tunisia fans at the Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd PA 6/10 England football fans wave flags as theyr arrive in Volgograd AFP/Getty Images 7/10 An England fan waves a flag ahead of the start of the match in Volgograd Jeremy Selwyn 8/10 England fans in Russia ahead of England's opening game against Tunisia Jeremy Selwyn 9/10 An England and Tunisia fan stand side-by-side ahead of the game this evening Jeremy Selwyn 10/10 England and Tunisia fans in Volgograd Jeremy Selwyn

Tougher challenges are to come, inevitably, and the contrasting challenges of seeing off limited opponents in Panama on Sunday and then rising to the individual talents Belgium boast a week today will reveal more about whether Southgate and Holland have cracked a time- honoured issue.

“The team do look athletic and fresh,” he said. “I thought they were going strong on Monday at the end and they started very well. With reflection at this point, there are aspects of that we have got right. The fourth thing is there is a tactical element to it as well. With Harry [Kane] on his own in a 4-3-3, getting support and players around him can be difficult sometimes. And it can look difficult for him. He is playing against two centre-backs, he hasn’t got too many players around him but playing the way we are, in a 3-5-2, he has lots of bodies around him — you see that in Dele [Alli] and Jesse [Lingard] making runs, Raheem [Sterling] being close.

“The team looks dynamic because they are in close proximity to each other, so there is always a chance of combinations and success.”

That 3-5-2 shape was a plan hatched while Southgate and Holland sat over dinner one night in Sochi during a month-long road trip which took in the England Under-21s games in Poland and last summer’s Confederations Cup. It was a mixture of the matches they had seen, the Premier League trend, including Holland’s work with Antonio Conte at Chelsea, and the manager’s personal fondness for the methods employed by Terry Venables and Glenn Hoddle during Euro ’96 and World Cup ’98 respectively.

“We tried to envisage how our team would look in those kinds of fixtures against that kind of opposition [at the Confed Cup], and we made some decisions,” said Holland. “One of those was a back three. That decision was with and without the ball. We felt we would be better with and without the ball with a back three.”

Time will tell whether they can succeed where others fail.