Gareth Southgate says he plans to “prove people wrong” in the same way he has done “all my life”, as he confronted the intense personal and professional criticism he faced from England’s 4-0 defeat to Hungary, and insisted it will not be an issue for the team by September.
The 51-year-old admitted there was a “risk” of loss of momentum, but that was just another calculation to make for an international break with a lot of caveats and complications. It was for those reasons that Southgate was relatively relaxed about the results, as he reiterated that this was mostly about “managing minutes” like a pre-season.
