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'England didn't want to be there' - Jonathan Wilson on the historic loss to Hungary

Jonathan Wilson explains how Gareth Southgate's England side lost so heavily against Hungary.



English journalist Jonathan Wilson joined The Football Show on Wednesday to discuss England's loss to Hungary.

Gareth Southgate has been a phenomenal England manager.

Yet, he was booed off the pitch on Tuesday night as fans called for his job. It was England's worst loss at home for almost 100 years, but it was also a loss in a game that is largely meaningless for this side. Southgate fielded an experimental team, resting his bigger name players and blooding fringe players.

Hungary were able to pick the England defence apart and score goals on counter attacks. John Stones was sent off, but that was only after Hungary scored four goals.

Jonathan Wilson explained the 4-0 defeat.

"Pretty much everything [went wrong]," Wilson said.

"It's not a full-strength England side. I think it's a Hungary team that are better than people perhaps give them credit for. Particularly when sitting deep, playing on the break. They're very well organized...they're very good at that. We've seen them cause very good teams problems. England aren't unique in that.

"It's one of those nights when Hungary didn't take all of their chances but they were definitely very efficient in taking their chances."

But even with the weakened team, England still had plenty of quality on show. Harry Kane started upfront, every player is a Premier League regular. Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham made up seven of the team's starting XI.

Fringe players such as Jarrod Bowen, Conor Gallagher, Marc Guehi and Kalvin Phillips were eager to impress. Or at least, they should have been.

"More than anything else, nobody wanted to be playing this game. Nobody English did.

"Because of Covid, this has been a really, really long, exhausting season. I don't know a journalist whose not shattered. No journalist wanted to be in Wolverhampton last night, or in Munich or in Budapest before that. It's been a really, really tiring two weeks when it felt like the season was over with the Champions League final.

"I don't know how players would pick themselves up at all. They know this is a game that really doesn't matter. They must look at that squad and think 'Half the people here aren't going to be in a World Cup squad.'

"Fundamentally I think everyone was done two weeks ago. It's very hard to pick yourself up, so it's partially a mental issue and physically they're just exhausted."

"The players are failing Stephen Kenny" - Stuey Byrne

 

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Bukayo Saka Conor Gallagher England Harry Kane John Stones Jonathan Wilson Kyle Walker