BIGGER PICTURE STILL THE FOCUS FOR SOUTHGATE

AS the nation celebrated the Platinum Jubilee back home, there was far less conviviality inside the England dressing room here on Saturday night. Gareth Southgate tried his best to lessen the damage caused by his team’s loss to Hungary in their first Nations League fixture, insisting results like this are inevitable on the road to Qatar 2022. England have no friendlies between now and their first World Cup group game against Iran on November 25 — so the head coach has no other option but to experiment in these Nations League fixtures. As hard as he might try to take the competition seriously, he has bigger fish to fry with the World Cup little more than five months away. ‘I knew going into this block of four games that you run the risk of some results that might hurt,’ said Southgate. ‘But I have to look at the bigger picture and ignore the inevitable that comes with defeats and take what I will learn from it going into Qatar. ‘We have not got friendlies to try it, so we have to do it in these games. Of course, the ideal is to develop players, play well and win games. But you have to accept that if you are to try to do the first part, then there is a risk on some of the other bits and, yes, that is a difficult balance.’ The wider context of Southgate’s World Cup blueprint should not absolve the team of blame following the loss in

Budapest. England were tame, wilting on a blazing hot evening, but this was not a smash and grab raid by the Hungarians; they were superior on the night. Southgate’s decision to play with a back five against a team they defeated 4-0 in September left many scratching their heads. Similarly, his players’ lack of application should concern the England manager ahead of tomorrow’s clash against Germany. Of greater concern, though, is the fans, with Southgate feeling the need to plead with England’s travelling support not to embarrass the nation ahead of the game in Munich. The FA have sold 3,466 tickets for the Nations League fixture at the Allianz Arena, but thousands more are expected to travel to Munich, raising fears of clashes. When asked whether violent incidents involving England fans affects the team, Southgate replied: ‘Yes, it definitely has an impact. Because of the landscape at the moment, the spotlight is going to be on, so we want to be coming away talking about a brilliant night and about good football and a stunning atmosphere. We don’t have any control over that, we can only ask that’s what our fans deliver.’ Meanwhile, the Hungarian FA are expected to escape punishment from UEFA, despite the booing of England players taking the knee in Saturday’s 1-0 loss in Budapest. The game was part of a two-match stadium ban for Hungary due to the behaviour of their fans during Euro 2020. But it was played in front of 36,000 as there was no limit on the number of schoolchildren invited to the match free of charge — with one adult accompanying every ten children.