Gareth Southgate attributes sluggish England display to high temperatures

Gareth Southgate cited the Hungary heat as the main reason behind a sluggish England performance which led to Nations League defeat in Budapest.

Dominik Szoboszlai's second-half 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.

England, with debutant Jarrod Bowen 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 to a tepid display.

"I think we knew it was going to be a very difficult game," he said.

"We’ve had difficult games with them, with Hungary, as other big nations have had. They’re very 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 together for three months and we have had three games in six months."

Southgate suggested he may have incorrectly balanced picking a team to win with experimenting ahead of the World 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