England’s drubbing by Hungary shows risk of over-attacking, warns Southgate

Gareth Southgate believes England’s humiliating 4-0 home defeat by Hungary was a reminder of why he must not adopt an overly attack-minded gameplan. The manager, who has faced criticism for caution, made changes at the start of the second half with his team 1-0 down in the Nations League tie.

Southgate switched from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2, with forward-thinking wing-backs in Reece James and Bukayo Saka, driving No 8s in Conor Gallagher and Jude Bellingham, and Raheem Sterling on alongside Harry Kane up front. Southgate later replaced Gallagher with Mason Mount and Bellingham with Phil Foden.

But England were taken apart by a well-organised, quick-transitioning Hungary to leave them bottom of Nations League Group A3 with two points from four matches and one goal. The mood outside the England camp has shifted sharply – the atmosphere at Molineux was toxic, with chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing” towards Southgate – and there are fears over how the end-of-season results and performances will affect the team’s chances at the World Cup, which kicks off on 21 November.

“I think some of the desire to see open play … we saw [against Hungary] that you’ve got to have the balance of a team right,” Southgate said. “With a club, maybe if you’re at the top and you’ve got a long time working with the players, you can play a more expansive game, although even the top teams are bloody good defensively.

“The idea that we can just play lots of attacking players and rely on talent to win matches – it’s not the way it is. It was a reminder to myself in the second half that, OK, you go for a gamble to try to win the game because you think that’s important. But what happened can happen.”

John Stones was sent off in the 82nd minute at 3-0