Baker and O’Brien, who are both employed full-time with the Football Association, will not lose their jobs in the analyst department but they are now excluded from the England’s manager’s close circle following eight years working under Southgate.
The analyst department is led by Rhys Long and is responsible for working with the manager on game plans. They create and compile clips of all the games of every player in the senior squad and junior teams. It is a crucial and time-consuming role which provides valuable insight for the manger.
Carsley has also made further personnel changes with Under-21s goalkeeping coach Tim Dittmer moving up to the senior team and former England internationals, Ashley Cole and Joleon Lescott, working as assistants to the new England boss. The short-term contracts of Southgate’s coaches Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Paul Nevin are not expected to be renewed.
Carsley is being given the full support of the FA, despite being appointed on a temporary basis, with his triumph in the Under-21s Championship in Georgia last summer seen as proof of his and his team’s capabilities.
His first match in charge is a Nations League game against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on September 7th followed by a clash with Finland in the same competition at Wembley three days later.
The new England manager for the foreseeable future wants to promote Under-21s analyst James Rider to work with the senior team as well as goalkeeping coach Tim Dittmer, starting next month. There are already full-time staff or long-term freelance coaches in those positions which leaves the Football Association reorganising staff for the first time post-Southgate.
Mike Baker and Stephen O’Brien are the senior team’s lead performance analysts. It is a critical role at the FA, with the analysts responsible for working with the manager on game plans, including set-pieces and opposition analysis. They are also expected to edit clips of all the games of every senior player competing for a position in the squad.
Dittmer was the Under-21s’ goalkeeper coach for the European championship triumph last summer in which the team, managed by Carsley, did not concede a single goal.
Goalkeeper James Trafford made a crucial late penalty save in that Under-21 final against Spain, and the Burnley stopper is one of the players likely to be promoted by Carsley into the first-team squad.
Over Southgate’s eight years in charge his senior goalkeeper coach was Martyn Margetson, who works in a similar capacity for Swansea City and was originally an appointment of Sam Allardyce in 2016. Margetson worked closely with Jordan Pickford in revolutionising England’s approach to penalties.
Many of the senior England staff are employed on a consultancy basis which means they are paid a freelance day rate during international breaks or tournament camps, rather than being employed on a full-time capacity. That was the case with Margetson and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink among others, as well as Carsley’s Under-21 assistants Ashley Cole and Joleon Lescott.
A 107-cap England international, Cole is certainly likely to come back as part of Carsley’s staff for the Nations League games this autumn which begin with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Sept 7 and Finland at Wembley three days later.
The FA declined to comment.
