“There is more than one way to skin a cat,” Steve Holland said. “If I’ve learned nothing else, I’ve learned that.”

England’s assistant manager was speaking here in Repino on Tuesday afternoon about the different approaches used by different managers he has worked with. And he explained in depth why he and Gareth Southgate skin the cat the way they do, the thinking and the decisions behind England’s 3-5-2 system, right down to the recent tactical switches: one defensive midfielder with two going forward, Kyle Walker on the right of the back three.

It was a rare insight into exactly how a team came to be the way it is. Step by step from when Southgate took over in September 2016, just three months after Iceland, right up to Monday night, when they opened their World Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Tunisia in Volgograd.

Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Show all 25 1 /25 Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Tunisia vs England: Player ratings We run the rule over the two teams. Getty Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Tunisia Getty Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Mouez Hassen - 5 out of 10 The young goalkeeper made a couple of tremendous early saves before disaster struck with injury and England's opener. FIFA via Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Dylan Bronn - 6 Pinned back for long periods, he made one impressive burst down the flank that had the England defence panicked. AFP/Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Syam Ben Youssef - 6 Defended staunchly throughout by whatever means he deemed necessary. AFP/Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Yassine Meriah - 6 Another who gave everything in attempting to keep England out, but ultimately came up short. Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Ali Maaloul - 4 The left-back struggled to keep pace with Trippier, Sterling and Loftus-Cheek on a difficult night. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Ellyes Skhiri - 5 Found it difficult when England committed men forward, but recycled possession neatly on the occasions Tunisia took charge of the ball. FIFA via Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Fakhereedine Ben Youssef - 6 Made the most of Walker's challenge to win Tunisia's penalty, he showed a willingness to get into the box when needed. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Ferjani Sassi - 7 Tunisia's goalscorer, he was spot on from 12 yards and did much to protect his defence in the barrage that followed. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Naim Sliti - 6 The most impressive Tunisian from an attacking perspective although he was wayward with one shot and was ultimately sacrificed for a more defensively-minded player. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Anice Badri - 4 Overrun in the middle, he offered little cover for his defence and even less support to the forwards. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Wahbi Khazri - 4 The Sunderland player struggled to make an impact up front before making way for Khalifa late on. FIFA via Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings England Getty Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Jordan Pickford - 6 Close to keeping out a decent spotkick on an otherwise quiet evening for the young goalkeeper. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Kyle Walker - 6 Fielded in that unfamiliar centre-back role, he was perhaps unfortunate to concede a first half penalty. Otherwise steady and still threatened on a couple of those trademark runs. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings John Stones - 7 More of an aerial presence in the opposition box than his own, his thumping early header led to Kane's opener. AFP/Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Harry Maguire - 7 A couple of moments of lapsed concentration, but the defender continues to impress on the international stage. Happy to carry the ball forward when England needed creative inspiration. FIFA via Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Jordan Henderson - 7 An influential figure in midfield, who consistently picked out Trippier and Young on either wing with short and long passes. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Kieran Trippier - 8 A constant threat, both with set-pieces and when he bombarded down the right. A cool head in defence too. Getty Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Jesse Lingard - 7 His work rate and movement was exceptional, his finishing less so. Faded in the second half. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Dele Alli - 5 Appeared to pick up a knock early on that hampered his movement, but remained on until the 80th minute. Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Ashley Young - 5 Still looks awkward in the left wing-back position, constantly cutting back on to his right foot. Made some questionable decisions in his defending. FIFA via Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Raheem Sterling - 6 Began the game full of pace and intent, but lost belief after a couple of early misses and was eventually subbed. FIFA via Getty Images Tunisia vs England: Player ratings Harry Kane - 9 Two goals from the England captain, the second an injury time winner to show off his goalpoaching prowess on the international stage. Getty Images

And it was here in Russia, even further south than Volgograd, this time last year, that Southgate and Holland first conceived of their team playing the way they now do. They spent last June and July on tour, flying between Poland to watch the Under-21s, and Russia, watching the Confederations Cup and scouting out potential bases for the England team this summer.

At that point, there was not much of Southgate’s stamp on this England team. He had tweaked the Euro 2016 4-3-3 for a 4-2-3-1, hoping to get more support up for Harry Kane, but did not want to change too much with qualifiers to win. “It wasn't a time for revolution,” Holland said. “It was a time for making decisions in the short term.”

But that summer, culminating in one decisive dinner in Sochi, Southgate and Holland went back to first principles. What sort of football did they want England to play?

“The process was: what gives us the best chance of not conceding many goals? And what gives us the best chance of having more control of the game with the ball? They were the two factors really, given the type of players that we had.”

Southgate and Holland had seen Germany, Portugal, Mexico and Chile all play in the Confederations Cup. They thought about how their England side would fare against them one year on, and didn’t think that the 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 would stand up to scrutiny. They needed more security in defence, more possession, and more support for Harry Kane. “That decision was with and without the ball,” Holland said. “We felt we would be better with and without the ball with a back three.”

So for England’s final qualifier in Vilnius they experimented again with the back three and for the November friendlies, against Germany and Brazil, the change began in earnest. Even if that meant dropping Chris Smalling because he was not as good at playing out from the back.

“Once we were going down that road, that meant that to fit one of those three positions, you had to be a certain profile of player,” Holland said. “It’s been documented in the media, some players maybe are, some players maybe aren’t. But we were very clear that being able to handle the ball to a good level is one of those criteria.”

Holland during an England training session ahead of next Sunday's match against Panama (AFP/Getty Images)

The next decision was whether to stick with the more conventional 3-4-3 shape. That was how Chelsea won the Premier League in 2016-17, with Holland assisting Antonio Conte. And what England had tried when they lost 1-0 in Dortmund in March 2017.

But when England went back to the back three permanently eight months later, they did not go to 3-4-3, but a 3-5-2, losing the wide forwards to add an extra midfielder, so they could use a more creative man with two holders.

“The next stage of it was, what best suited the midfield balance? We then felt three [midfielders] rather than two, given the profile of players we have. Three [midfielders] brings a [Jesse] Lingard, a Dele Alli, an [Adam] Lallana, who unfortunately we couldn’t have but was England’s player of the year last year. If we play with two, it’s much more difficult for that kind of player to play that role, the responsibility becomes more to provide structure and balance to the team.”

And the 3-5-2 allows two central strikers, as Kane and Raheem Sterling now show. “We have good forwards,” Holland said. “If we play 4-3-3 or 4-2-1-3 we can only play one of them. We play two, we can get two on the pitch, and also refresh the two more who are probably just as good. So three [centre-backs], we thought was a good decision, three [in midfield] is better than two, and two [centre forwards] is probably better than one, given the profile of players we have.”

Southgate and Holland have spent much of the past 12 months tweaking a system that will supplement Kane's talents (Getty)

But in those two November friendlies, England played with two holding - Eric Dier and Jake Livermore - with Ruben Loftus-Cheek further forward. And the team was not dangerous enough. So the next progressive move was to flip the triangle: one sitting midfielder and two attacking instead.

“You need to be productive with what you’re doing,” Holland said. “Certainly in qualification our team looked stable, but didn’t look exciting, didn’t create a lot of chances and didn’t score a lot of goals. So how could we take that to another level, and retain that stability? We didn’t concede a lot of goals, and we didn’t want to lose that, but to add the next bit.”

For the friendlies this March, the midfield was re-shaped. “Holland was the first time you would have seen two offensive 8s, Lingard and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and that worked well, and that continued into the Italy game. Nigeria was the first time we tried Dele there, obviously we watched him a lot, the Nigeria game particularly in the first half, the balance of him running forwards, the positions Jesse was taking up, and Raheem dropping short, that looked, that created problems for our opponent.”

So the shape was finally in place, a 3-5-2 with one holding midfielder and two attacking, rather than the other way round. The final tweak also came in Holland in March, using Kyle Walker on the right of the back three, rather than at wing-back, to give Kieran Trippier more cover to attack, and to help England defend against the counter-attack on that side.

The final tweak to Southgate's formation came with the position change for Walker (Getty Images)

Holland pointed it was less different from Walker’s Manchester City role than some realise. “Kyle hasn’t played this year like he played for Tottenham in the previous three years, nothing like the same role,” he said. “With their left-back, usually Fabian Delph, playing inside, and Leroy Sane playing open and wide on the left, Kyle has almost played as a third centre-back. He hasn't spent all of his time 30-40 metres down the touchline. He's been more controlling counter-attacks.”

Just like he did in Volgograd on Monday. “He's very, very quick and on more than one occasion against Tunisia the opposition smelled a counter-attack and Kyle gives you tremendous security there. I'm really not sure whether we're arguing about 20 metres here or there, we're not asking him to play behind the forward. He's more or less playing where he has for his club all year and been a champion.”