‘Disappointing’ – Gareth Southgate’s verdict on England’s 1-1 draw with Hungary

Gareth Southgate admitted that England’s performance in their 1-1 draw against Hungary was “disappointing”.

The former Crystal Palace defender named South London-born players Jadon Sancho and Tammy Abraham on the bench, with the latter coming on as a late second-half substitute before going off injured.

Luke Shaw was adjudged to have fouled Loic Nego in the penalty area, before Roland Sallai made no mistake from the spot to give Hungary the lead.

John Stones equalised for the Three Lions as he latched on to a teasing Phil Foden delivery to make it 1-1 just before half-time.

“[It was a] disappointing performance,” said Southgate. “Hungary caused us a tactical problem and we were not fluid.

“We did not play at the level we need to play, simple as that. It’s difficult to pinpoint and we will go away and look at the balance of the team.

“We have to reflect and should not judge things on one game and that experiment. From the start we were not sharp with our play, gave the ball away, were over-running things and, for the first time in a long time, we have to hold our hands up.

“We’d struggled to create many clear chances. We hoped that some freshness at the end of the game might produce that. We changed the system. We were open in counterattacks and we had to solidify from that.

“We hadn’t opened them up with 4-3-3, so to try with two number 10s inside and two wing-backs, we wanted to pose them a different problem. It stopped the problem with counterattack but we weren’t able to improve.”