Anthony Gordon's Rising Standards in England's Camp

Anthony Gordon is not hiding from the standards now being set inside England’s camp. He is helping to raise them.

“In terms of standards off the pitch, we are holding each other accountable, which is really important for any team that wants to be successful,” he says. It is a line that lands differently when you look at his tournament so far.

Gordon has been central to England’s surge into the World Cup quarterfinals, where Norway await on Saturday. He delivered two sharp assists for Harry Kane in the late, nervy turnaround against the Democratic Republic of Congo, then earned the decisive penalty against Mexico that Kane buried. Big moments. High pressure. Gordon has met them head on.

Yet the Liverpudlian is not satisfied with being the energetic creator on the flank. He wants something more ruthless.

He wants goals.

“I love finishing, it's a big part of my game, I want to be a goalscorer,” he says. That ambition has turned into an obsession with repetition. “The only way I can truly get to where I want to be is by practising every single day. The more practice allows you to become free in the mind on game day.”

So he has gone straight to the source. When you share a dressing room with one of the game’s elite finishers, you ask questions. Lots of them.

“I have been speaking to H [Kane] and trying to gain as much knowledge as I possibly can because he can do it on both feet, doesn't matter the angle, doesn't matter off his touch, the ball finds a way into the net,” Gordon explains. “I have been trying to pick up a little bit off him.”

It is a snapshot of the culture England are trying to build: senior players setting the bar, younger ones chasing it down, all of them demanding more from each other away from the cameras as much as under the floodlights.

Norway, with Erling Haaland looming on the horizon, will test every inch of that resolve. Gordon’s assists and work rate have already shifted England’s attack up a gear. If the finishing drills and late chats with Kane start to translate into goals of his own, the route to the final might look very different.