Gareth Southgate agrees with England fans booing him during 'hurtful' Hungary humiliation

Posted Wednesday, June 15, 2022 by Dailystar.co.uk

England manager Gareth Southgate was on the receiving end of some negative chants and booing at Molineux during his side's embarrassing 4-0 thrashing by Hungary on Tuesday

Gareth Southgate agrees with England fans booing him during 'hurtful' Hungary humiliation
England endured a chastening evening against Hungary (Image: Getty Images)

Gareth Southgate has admitted he understands why England supporters were booing him following the shocking 4-0 defeat by Hungary.

The Three Lions were dreadful at Molineux and left the pitch to a toxic atmosphere, with the home fans venting their frustrations at Southgate and his players . The home team played poorly from start to finish and were punished by Roland Sallai’s double and goals from Zsolt Nagy and Daniel Gazdag.

It was their biggest defeat since 1964 and their worst at home since 1928 and leaves them rock bottom of their Nations League group, just five months out from the Qatar World Cup. Chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” were heard in Wolverhampton, while there was also widespread booing of Southgate’s decisions.

After the result, which left England without a win or a goal from open play in their last four games, Southgate was asked on Channel 4 if he understood why the fans had booed him. “Yes of course,” he replied. “In the end, this is about winning matches with England. Tonight was the sort of night that a lot of my predecessors have had and experienced, and it’s difficult.

"I’m not going to say it doesn’t hurt, but it’s very clear to me what we were trying to do across the four matches, and the irony is that the two Nations League campaigns have been the ones that have heaped negativity and pressure onto us. I’ve got to go with that and it’s my job to protect the players. The results are my responsibility.”

Gareth Southgate agrees with England fans booing him during 'hurtful' Hungary humiliation
England fans were far from happy with their side's performance (Image: Mark Leech/Offside/Getty Images)

England have now suffered back-to-back defeats against Hungary, who have bookended a miserable 10 days which have also included a 1-1 draw with Germany and a 0-0 stalemate against Italy. Southgate has used the fixtures as opportunities to experiment, but has learned little and now has just two more Nations League matches in September before the opening World Cup game against Iran on November 21.

"I’ve just said to the players that across the four matches, that’s my responsibility,” Southgate added. “I’ve tried to balance looking at new players, tried to rest players, we couldn’t keep flogging our more experienced and better players, but in the end the teams I’ve selected haven’t been good enough to get the results in the two Hungary games really.

“I think the other two performances have been more positive than perhaps the reaction to it. But I totally understand the reaction tonight, it’s a chastening experience.”