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I don’t want to sound like a typical England fan, but we should be taking Panama to the cleaners.

Let’s not beat around the bush here, if we have any desire to be semi-successful in the World Cup, then we should be hammering them on Sunday.

Belgium could have scored as many as they wanted to when they played them and after our win against Tunisia on Monday, the attitude should be let’s go and batter them.

Harry Kane should be thinking to himself ‘you know what, I can win the golden boot in this game’.

I am convinced with the right service, he can run riot and that has to be the mindset of the players, with or without Dele Alli.

Then we go into the Belgium game with two wins and all of a sudden you are on a roll.

I think of the sequence of games has been perfect for us in that respect compared to the other nations.

Take Argentina for example, they drew against Iceland then lost against Croatia and go into the last game on one point.

Their fate is very much likely to be out of their own hands come the time they play their final group game.

So in respect of England, our first two fixtures have been favourable and now it’s about getting the job done.

We go into the game with manager Gareth Southgate having revealed he dislocated his shoulder while out running.

(Image: Getty)

He didn’t try to hide it, but instead made a joke of it. He said he was disappointed because he was on for a personal best.

The players, meanwhile, are having unicorn races in the pool so it’s all been very light and loose.

The last time I can remember a group of England players enjoying themselves like this was in Euro 96 because it was based here.

But on foreign soil, I think you have to go back to World Cup 1990 and that was down to characters like Paul Gascoigne and Terry Butcher.

They are enjoying each other’s company which I feel should not be underestimated when it comes to team spirit.

They are not sitting in the hotel bored out of their minds. There’s no Ben Foster situation thinking he can’t sit in another hotel with England because it’s dire.

I am thinking of booking a ticket to fly out there not to watch a match, but just be around the hotel.

I’d dive into a pool on a unicorn and race Jordan Pickford or take him on at darts. It’s like a club 18-30s, but they are getting the job done and that’s brilliant.

It’s been a masterstroke by Southgate to get it like this because you have to trust the players to know they can keep their focus.

I actually went to the Superbowl with Southgate this year. Paul Mace, one of our directors at Notts County, works very closely with Vauxhall and the FA.

Gareth came out and he is very open to other sports, and what he can learn from them.

Michael Cheika, the Australian rugby union coach, and cycling’s Sir Dave Brailsford also accompanied us on the trip and these three lads were together for a week.

They were picking each other’s brains, asking about their sports and how they could improve their own. It was like a think tank and it was brilliant.

Gareth was pulling out information all the time.

A little example of what he was looking for and the distance he would go to try to gain an edge came when we hopped on a train to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves play basketball.

We are chatting on the train. I asked him what he would get out of it and he said he would talk to the owner about how they do things.

But he said he was interested in that in basketball, there is five versus five on the court, but somebody would always get free under the basket.

So he wanted to know how they screened and blocked so they could get the space in such a small area.

He wondered if he could learn something and employ it in set-pieces in the penalty area.

He is always thinking out of the box and that fascinated me. No stone has been left unturned and it’s paid off for him.