Southgate testing out tactics

ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate is happy to test his World Cup formula in the more pressurised environment of the Nations League – despite Saturday’s defeat to Hungary.

Uefa’s latest international tournament has seen a drastic dropoff of friendly fixtures, with England’s build-up to the winter World Cup in Qatar now dominated by Nations League matches.

A 1-0 loss in Budapest on Saturday will be followed by a clash with Germany in Munich tomorrow night, with European champions Italy to come at Molineux next weekend.

Italy and Germany are England’s opponents in the September international break as the Nations League group stages conclude just two months before the World Cup kicks off.

Southgate admitted after the Hungary defeat that he may have got the balance wrong between picking a team to win the game and taking a look at different players but believes difficult Nations League fixtures provide a better proving ground than friendlies.

“I think across these four games, we’ve still got to find out about players,” he said.

“We don’t have any friendlies between now and the World Cup, so the only opportunity to try things and to find out about people is within these games.

“Frankly, that’s better than finding out in friendlies because we’re going to see them under pressure in matches where the quality of the opposition is good.

“So it (the loss) doesn’t really alter the way we view the period, as a coach, you’ve got to balance the disappointment with recognising ‘OK, what have we taken from it and what do we learn from it?’”.

Gareth Southgate