I didn’t get the balance quite right – Southgate
ENGLAND boss Gareth Southgate cited the Hungary heat as the main reason behind a sluggish display, which led to Nations League defeat in Budapest on Saturday.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s secondhalf penalty secured a 1-0 win for the hosts as England’s players were jeered for taking the knee before a match which, despite being played behind closed doors, was watched by a crowd in excess of 30,000, with school children allowed in for free.
England, with debutant Jarrod Bowen proving the brightest of their attacking options, rarely threatened the Hungary goal and toiled for much of the contest with Southgate pointing to the weather as a contributing factor.
“I think we knew it was going to be a very difficult game,” he said.
“We’ve had difficult games with Hungary, as other big nations have had. They’re difficult to break down.
“We probably lacked a half-yard I would say, in terms of our real incisiveness. I think that was more the heat than the length of the season. The other factor is, we haven’t played for three months.”
Southgate suggested he may have incorrectly balanced picking a team to win the match with experimenting ahead of the World
HUNGARY ........................... 1 ENGLAND ........................... 0
Cup later this year, as Leicester full-back James Justin also made his senior debut.
“Across these four games, we are trying to balance having a look at things, finding out about players and trying to win,” he said.
“Maybe I didn’t quite get the balance of that right, but we’ve learned a lot from it and I have to accept you are not going to win matches and you’ve got to ride the criticism that comes from it with the learning that should help us further down the line.
“We are disappointed because if we’re going to be a team that gets to the final stages of a World Cup, these are the types of games that we have to win. We have a pretty good idea of what our strongest team probably is. Quite a few of those players are coming not from an ideal preparation.”
The deciding moment came after Reece James, only on the pitch for a couple of minutes after replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold, was deemed to have fouled Zsolt Nagy, and Szoboszlai made no mistake from the penalty spot.