“He is completely below me,” said the coach, after a historic defeat by Hungary to the national team. Only one problem, however, is that many can interpret it much more deeply than Southgate intended. The growing emotion, which is always prolonged but expressed so aggressively by an enraged crowd at Molineux, is that it ‘s time to leave. that it depends on him why he was never so good. It’s hard of course, but it can actually show the most substantial consistency of the night, beyond the pure football problems within the team or even the loss of momentum. It is that, for the first time, Southgate is facing the really toxic atmosphere that has finally overwhelmed every English coach. The added risk is that it would not take long for it to be completely reversed, that any bad result could be similar to the 0-0 with Algeria in 2010 or the 1-1 with Russia at the beginning of Euro 2016. Southgate O , for his part, faced this head-on in a formally candid press conference after this 4-0 defeat. “I know the role,” Southgate said when asked specifically about a position long known as “impossible work.” “I knew the role before I got it. I saw all my predecessors go through this, great people like Sir Bobby Robson and how they saw him. “If I get skinny, I have to deal with it. “It is not realistic to have the ride I had five years ago and not have criticism.” It was an admirable prospect, given how impressive the result was at night, but then that was the feeling Southgate exuded. He was essentially saying that this did not really matter without saying it explicitly. He pointed out the season, the unnecessary duration of this break, the lack of friendlies before the World Cup and – in the end – how the team had to change as a result of all this. This meant that England never had, as Southgate put it, its “strongest team”. “I do not think it is detrimental to the mentality of the group, because it was not in full force in any of the games. That is the key factor. “ Southgate experienced a toxic atmosphere in Molineux (AFP via Getty Images) An unfair reading of this would be that the England coach was actually dismissing some of his minor players and even “throwing them under a bus”. That was not it though. It was more to say Southgate that he went very experimental in terms of team balance and often left England without sufficient experience. This, combined with everything else, resulted in more gaps than usual in this team as well as far fewer goals. England scored only one of those four games, and that was from a penalty. It was perhaps the most convincing of a series of disturbing facts about Southgate from this route, perhaps even beyond the historical scale of the Hungarian result. Marco Rossi’s happy press conference – where he spoke of a possible minute’s silence in Hungary when he died – showed the reality that these games represent greater opportunities for the nations under the first category. This is due to the fact that most of their players had much less minutes during the big seasons. This is relevant and is repeated. That is why, as Southgate put it, “other teams across Europe have had similar problems with England.” All of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Croatia and Belgium had surprises during this break. But there is a difference, which signals another real concern for Southgate from these results. Most of these teams have achieved more than one convincing performance. Everyone has shown an aggressive idea. This is an element that still seems to be missing from Southgate England, which remains the main source of criticism. There is this persistent argument that he’s somehow lacking in being an elite coach, regardless of his suitability as a manager. England suffered a hard defeat by Hungary (PA) England is very rigid, very defensively structured, very inefficient in using its abundant talent. The biggest argument combined with this is that many other coaches could get a lot more out of this team, which is one of the strongest in world football. Some of these may be true, but some reservations are necessary. England has rich talent in some areas, but in others it lacks a lot. The abundance of No. 10 and the wide forwards they have now, which the country has been missing for so long, is offset by the lack of a select passer in the center of the midfield. The very rare availability of a proven scorer to Harry Kane – something so many countries are now asking for, especially Germany and Spain – is being undermined by the absence of a top center-half. All of this means that Southgate must constantly compromise with his team, but it is in his nature to always lean towards the Conservatives. This can still work in international football, however. It has been proven by Portugal in 2016 and France in 2018, two sides that have proven role models for Southgate. There is also something like a myth about international football, which has been perpetuated by a reality that has now been handed over to an increasingly distant past. Is that this is the top level of the game, with the most demanding coaches, where all the select coaches live. Nothing could be further from the truth. Southgate generally does not face an elite manager. The vast majority of them now work in the club game, because that’s where the most money and most of the fame are. Harry Kane looks disappointed as England’s miserable Nations League series ends (PA) Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp do things at this level that are simply impossible for international coaches. If Southgate left, the potential candidates would probably not be at all close to that kind of quality. That’s why this is an issue that is often overdone, as evidenced by the fact that Southgate himself reached two kicks of glory just last summer. This shows one of the two factors that could really complicate this for England, however. The first is that, in a break from almost all of the last two decades, this World Cup will feature two coaches who are truly at the elite level. Both the Spaniard Luis Enrique and the German Hansi Flick recently won the Champions League. To get an idea of ​​how impressive this is, the last time a World Cup coach won the club’s top prize, even within a decade before the tournament, was Vicente Del Bosque in 2010. He had won the Champions League eight years ago. Most of the other coaches who have won a European Cup have worked in a World Cup long after their best. But there is now the worrying question of whether Southgate’s reign in England has gone through its best. or we are now on the negative side of a circle. Some around the German camp for the 1-1 draw in Munich noticed how they felt some resemblance to the last four years of Jogi Loew’s time, where something that had worked gradually stagnated. Other long-term observers in the UK, meanwhile, say it has similar characteristics to, for example, the 4-1 defeat of Sven-Goran Eriksson to Denmark in 2005. that point where it just falls and resentment for it all rises. It is just as easy to forget how popular the Swede was once in England. This happened even though he never made it to the quarterfinals. Southgate has surpassed it in both of its tournaments. Relatively relaxed after the game with Hungary, given the circumstances, the England coach was just as quick to point out that all the “pressure” he has faced comes from the Nations League campaigns, which had many complications. It was kind of like that from the end of 2020 in the preparation games until the European Championship, and it is similar now. “The irony is that it’s in the Nations League games. In other games, we had the best performances of the last 50 years. “ England fans turned against Southgate during the defeat by Hungary with questions now being raised about his tactics (Getty Images) This is of course why any discussion of replacing him before the World Cup should be rejected out of control. There are too many reservations. There is a very good record in tournaments. England is generally a very good team. Rossi reiterated that he is among the favorites for the World Cup and that it was a “miracle” that Hungary had beaten them. The opportunity for glory is as good as ever, even if this defeat is allowed. That’s the pressure on Southgate, though. The FA has long had the 2022 World Cup, more than anything else, as a typical goal for glory. It has long been believed that this is when many elements, including the development of a gifted generation of talent, can come together at the right time. That’s why, regardless of anything else, this result came at the wrong time. Everyone involved wanted this international break to end as soon as it started. Now they stay in it all summer with no chance of fixing it anytime soon. This will apply to Southgate more than anyone else.