What has gone wrong for England and how can it be fixed before World Cup?

England crashed to a heavy defeat to Hungary on Tuesday night and ended the June international break with no wins and no goals from open play.

It was not great preparation for the winter World Cup, now just five months away, with a minority of fans turning on Gareth Southgate during the 4-0 loss at Molineux.

Here, the PA news agency looks at what has gone wrong this month and how Southgate can fix any issues before the opening game in Qatar.

These four Nations League fixtures were always going to present problems, coming as they did at the end of such a long season.

Fatigue and fitness issues affected nations across Europe and England, in particular, struggled to deal with the tiredness among the squad.

Southgate attempted to balance a need for results, preparations for Qatar and managing minutes for his players but failed to do so effectively in any of the fixtures.

Harry Kane’s late penalty in Germany rescued a point while there was a goalless stalemate at home to Italy with home and away losses to Hungary bookending a disappointing run of results.

Southgate pointed to not being able to name his strongest side in any of the four games and he will be hoping that changes when he picks his team to face Iran at the World Cup.

Both of his preferred left-backs – Luke Shaw and Ben Chilwell – were missing through injury, while vice-captain Jordan Henderson was rested completely following a gruelling campaign with Liverpool and Phil Foden was only able to make a late cameo off the bench in the final game having tested positive for coronavirus.

Southgate wants to be judged on results and performances once he can call upon such players, but a lack of depth within his squad has arguably been revealed this month.

Goals.

England