ENGLAND boss Gareth Southgate pulled no punches in a damning assessment of his players after the 1-1 home draw against Hungary.
John Stones spared the Three Lions’s blushes with a first-half equaliser on a forgetful night at Wembley for the World Cup Qualifier.
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Roland Sallai had fired the visitors into a shock lead from the penalty spot on 24 minutes.
It came after Luke Shaw’s foot was adjudged to have been dangerously high on Loic Nego by referee Alejandro Hernandez – and VAR agreed.
It means England won’t be able to guarantee qualification from Group I until the last game, when they face minnows San Marino.
Southgate‘s troops need four points from that game and the one against Albania.
Despite plenty of attacking talent on the pitch barely any chances were created as balls into the box were poor all night.
Speaking after the game to ITV, the gaffer said: “Disappointing performance. Full credit to Hungary, they caused us a tactical problem and we were not fluid.
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“We did not play at the level we need to play, simple as that.
“It’s difficult to pin-point and we will look at the balance of the team. We made simple mistakes with the ball.
“We have to go away and 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 today.
“I don’t think we should look at individuals, collectively we did not play at the level we need to.”
‘NO KILLER TOUCH’
Declan Rice, who was one of a handful of players to come out with any credit, admitted the performance was ‘poor’.
He added: “You can say it is poor because we drew the game but we dominated.
“[It was a] silly penalty to give away but we got back into the game and could not get that killer touch.
“You have to give credit to the opposition sometimes, Hungary were much better than when we played them away. I still think we did enough to win the game.”
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