AT LEAST there is one positive to be taken from this shambles. At least the World Cup is not about to start.
Until Fifa came to their senses and moved the Qatar tournament to later this year – the weather in Doha was 40C yesterday – the opening match would have been in a few days’ time.
England suffered a 1-0 defeat to Hungary in their opening Nations League game Credit: Reuters
Dominik Szoboszlai’s penalty gifted Hungary the three points Credit: PA Gareth Southgate has got away with one, big time.
None of it is his fault, really. But the England squad, as they proved with this horrific performance, would have been completely unprepared for a major tournament.
Deservedly so, Southgate’s team were beaten by the 40th best team in the world.
The first World Cup match against Iran is on November 21. Perform like this and they will be back home before we even get into December.
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Horror penalty decision sees Three Lions lose Nations League opener At various times, Southgate had three right-backs on the pitch, two centre-backs and two right wingers with one featuring at left wing-back.
This was a disorganised performance defensively and as for the England attack, there was not one.
The Three Lions looked knackered and wilted in front of 25,000 noisy children.
Jordan Henderson is probably thankful he has been given this batch of four Nations League matches off after a strength-sapping season with Liverpool.
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Bowen impressed on his England debut Credit: Getty And there are so many players suffering niggles that a World Cup now would have come at a bad time.
Harry Maguire, such a key defender for Southgate, is on the road to rediscovering his form after a nightmare season for Manchester United. As he proved here, there is still work to do.
Playing in a three-man defence, he was alongside Conor Coady who might be a brilliant cheerleader for Southgate behind the scenes, at this level, is not good enough.
John Stones came on in the second half but has had injury problems, Fikayo Tomori would have played but has not been 100 per cent while Ben White is not in the squad at all because of a hamstring problem.
And then there is this massive issue on the left of defence. Leicester’s James Justin, naturally a right back despite often playing on the left, was brought into the squad because of injuries to both Luke Shaw and Ben Chilwell.
You had to have some sympathy for Justin who suffered a truly terrible debut and unsurprisingly, was put out of his misery at half-time and replaced by Bukayo Saka.
As for the other debutant along with Justin, Jarrod Bowen did well in flashes but did not really do enough and Harry Kane did not have any service.
Jude Bellingham was handed a full 90 minutes in central midfield but on his 13th appearance, the 18-year-old tried a bit too hard.
The winning penalty was a bit dodgy and Zsolt Nagy made the most of contact from substitute Reece James.
Jordan Pickford guessed right but could not get near the spot kick from Dominik Szoboszlai.
Andras Schafer should have made it 2-0 but missed a sitter.
At the end, Hungary’s delighted players did not want to leave the pitch.
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Charlotte, 7, giggles as she conducts band on her first Royal visit Southgate’s team could not get down the tunnel quick enough and they will have to do a lot better on Tuesday in Munich, scene of a 5-1 win 21 years ago.
Play like this and the score will be the other way round.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
