England coach Gareth Southgate accepted responsibility for the Three Lions’ worst home defeat since 1928 as Hungary stormed to a 4-0 win in Wolverhampton on Tuesday.
Southgate’s men are staring at relegation from the top tier of the Nations League after a fourth consecutive game without a win.
But he called for fans to stand by his players ahead of the World Cup in November
“I totally understand tonight is a chastening experience,” said Southgate, who was the target for most of the anger coming from the stands at Molineux. “What I would say is this group of players have been unbelievable for the country and it’s important people stay with them because they are still going to be strong going forward.”
England surpassed all expectations to reach the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup and backed that up by reaching the final of a major tournament for the first time in 55 years at Euro 2020 last summer.
“It’s no time to panic,” said England captain Harry Kane, who dismissed any suggestion that Southgate should be sacked. “It was a night to forget but we’ve got to take it on the chin. We’ve got to move forward. We are preparing for a big World Cup and that’s the most important thing.”
Hungary secured its first win over England for 60 years in Budapest 10 days ago and followed that up with its first victory on English soil since a famous 6-3 success at Wembley in 1953.
A double from Roland Sallai and late goals from Adam Nagy and Daniel Gazdag kept Marco Rossi‘s side on course to reach the Nations League finals next year.
Hungary is not headed to the World Cup after it finished a distant fourth behind England in their qualifying group. But it leads Germany by a point in Nations League Group A3, with European champion Italy a further point behind with two games to go.
England is three points adrift at the bottom of the section and need a revival in September away to Italy and home to Germany to avoid relegation.
However, of greater concern for Southgate is how he rallies his squad with just two more matches before its World Cup campaign kicks off against Iran on Nov. 21.
Fatigue at the end of a long season that began just weeks after losing the Euro 2020 final to Italy has been blamed for England’s lackluster form. Southgate has rotated his side heavily over the four matches this month and admitted his decisions have backfired.
“The results are my responsibility,” added Southgate. “We picked a young team with energy and when the game started to go against them, it started to look that way. That’s my responsibility in the end. I felt at half-time we needed to go for the game. We made changes to have a more attacking impetus, but then we were more open as well.”
@ Agence France-Presse
There have been 4 chastening experiences. How many is too many? I think he’s got the balance wrong, again. England’s strengths are in attack, but he’s set them up as if they’re strong defenders–they’re not. You’re runnng out of time, GS.