Gary Lineker claims England should learn from Liverpool after woeful Hungary loss

Gary Lineker discusses the start of his presenting career

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Gary Lineker has claimed that England should be more like Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool following his country’s 4-0 Nations League defeat to Hungary on Tuesday. And the Match of the Day host also believes that Gareth Southgate should have rested his key players after a gruelling season. 

Lineker took to Twitter, writing: “I said previously that @EnglandFootball missed a trick by not resting all their important players so they’d be fresh for the World Cup. Would have also loved to have seen us adopt Liverpool’s way of playing. Would suit us perfectly. I also acknowledge, I’ve never been a coach.”

Southgate did make nine changes from the side that drew 0-0 with Italy on Saturday. However, his side went 1-0 down in the 15th minute when Roland Sallai slammed the ball past Aaron Ramsdale after John Stones mis-cued his header. Hungary doubled their lead in the 69th minute when Martin Allen took the ball off Kalvin Phillips and laid the ball on for Sallai to grab his second of the game.

A third Hungary goal came ten minutes later when a loose ball dropped to Zsolt Nagy who drove a shot from 25 yards into the back of the net. Stones was then shown a second yellow card for a foul on Daniel Gazdag. In a dismal night for the Three Lions, Hungary got their fourth when Gazdag latched onto a through ball and finished past Ramsdale.

During the game, Lineker also tweeted: “I’m sticking to cricket.” He was referencing England chasing 299 with 22 overs to spare on the final day to win the second Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge. England were set 299 from 72 overs and strolled the pursuit in 50 for their fifth-highest chase of all-time.

England did not, however, have such an enjoyable day in football, as the national team suffered their worst home defeat since 1928. Speaking on Channel 4’s coverage of the game, former England and Chelsea winger Joe Cole said: “It’s shocking, the performance tonight was shocking. The players weren’t at it.

“We have to accept that there was no cohesion, the attitude was wrong from the start. They weren’t at it, they weren’t aggressive, all the things we ask from the team. They weren’t at it, but that was tonight.

“For the fans I can understand the frustration, but you have to put some perspective on it. Gareth Southgate does know what he is doing, of course he does he has taken this group of players and his staff have taken them to a semi-final and a final. That is the most successful manager since Alf Ramsey, now that is factual no one can argue with that. But tonight it was dreadful, they will get in dressing down and they will be feeling very sorry for themselves but you have to put some perspective on it.”

In his post-match interview, Southgate said: “We picked a young team with energy, when the game started to go against them, it started to look that way. That’s my responsibility in the end.

“I felt at half-time we needed to go for it, we made changes that gave us more of an attacking impetus but then we were a bit more open as well at the end we were pushing that we left ourselves wide open.

“I’ve just said to the players there that across the four matches, that’s my responsibility. I tried to balance looking at new players and resting players. But in the end, the teams I’ve selected in the two Hungary games haven’t been strong enough to get the result.”

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