Our experts, the former federal captains of the Hungarian national team, gave their opinion on the three World Cup qualifiers in September;
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We asked our former federal captains:
Please rate matches against England, Albania and Andorra. What is the reason our performance has declined so much?
How do we definitely need to improve for the October matches, the home matches against Albania and the away matches against England?
László Bálint, former technical director of the Hungarian national team: “Albania needs to be defeated only because of our self-esteem.”
Overall, the situation is not very gratifying, as I was hoping for 6 points in the three matches, and the Hungarian draw against the English would have been just icing on the cake. After these three qualifiers, we found ourselves in a very difficult situation, moving away from the possibility of a qualifier on the one hand, and because Austria is in a downturn, so despite the excellent results in the League of Nations, it is not certain that the qualifier will come together. Of course, we still have a chance, but this is more of a mathematical possibility. As an outsider, it’s hard to judge the reasons for the poor play, which is frustrating primarily because it had no sign, as we played particularly well at the European Championships, both individually and at team level. What has happened is obviously to be analyzed, it is often said to learn from defeats, but I think it is better to avoid failures.
Victory will now be mandatory for the Albanians, but it will not be easy to achieve, and we must defeat them because of our self-esteem. In England, fair play is the goal, even a tie would be extra, these two matches will require a much more enthusiastic and focused game.
Péter Bozsik, former federal captain: “We couldn’t create situations at any of the meetings.”
The end result against the English was a predictable defeat, as in my opinion – despite being defeated by the Italians in the European Championship final – we are talking about the strongest national team in Europe, they have incredibly good footballers, especially in the offensive section. Nothing was wrong in Albania, as we should have reached at least one tie. This meeting also proved that they should not be underestimated, they should be dealt with with a shrug, but I am convinced that a Hungarian team in a good pass could have easily brought the three points. We have also suffered against Andorra, but for such meetings we say that at least we have the victory. The biggest problem is that the quality of the game was not good in any of the matches, our ball output against Albania and Andorra left a lot to be desired, which is why we were unable to create a series of situations in any of the matches, and that is really frustrating.
Against Albania, we need to improve primarily in the quality of the offensive play, we need to have more possession of the ball, and we also need to improve in the structure of the attacks. England is better than us in every way, but in order to slow them down a bit, we also need to move forward primarily in possession of the ball away. After all, if that doesn’t happen, we can get tired prematurely and the English will just run through us.
János Csank, former federal captain: “We don’t have fast attackers, and we need to improve in the combo game as well.”
My group of friends is witnessing that I have already said during the European Championships that the real measurement for us will be the next semester. Now the picture is not too rosy, but there is no reason to panic. You have to see who thought we could make it to the World Cup was thoroughly crippled. We have to evict around the third place, as the English and the Poles are ahead of us, and we have seen on our own skin that the Albanians have also developed a lot, it is no coincidence that Myrto Uzuni is the best player in Ferencváros. Against Andorra, we scored all the way, most of the three defenders passing each other. I never rewarded this style of play, it didn’t come in now either. I thought we would sprinkle them with four or five goals; these three qualifiers didn’t look good, but you shouldn’t chew a lot, you have to go beyond that.
Nothing is impossible in the two matches in October, but the three points are the reality, defeating Albania can be achieved, while in England it would be extra to get one point. I see the strike line is our weak point as we don’t have fast attackers and we need to improve in the combo game as well, since crossing the halfway through these three qualifiers, we were completely harmless in the opponent’s half of the field.
Sándor Egervári, former federal captain: “I was puzzled by these poor performances.”
Obviously, we met with teams of different values. The quality differences came out against England, but after the first half the four goals were a bit high. In Albania, we found ourselves facing a team of a caliber similar to ours, and unfortunately we were unable to parade a team game similar to the one we saw at the European Championships. We soon had a two-goal advantage against Andorra, which is why the team’s attitude and performance declined unexpectedly. Obviously, only Marco Rossi knows the explanation for this, as he prepared the Hungarian national team. In any case, I was confused by these poor performances.
We can only be successful against Albania and England if we find our way back to the path we have shown in the European Championships in terms of individual forms and team play.
Róbert Glázer, former federal captain: “We need to move forward mentally, physically and in ball safety”
I don’t think anyone liked these three World Cup qualifiers, mostly not because in the last four or five years the Hungarian national team has set the bar extremely high, the culmination of which was our performance at the 2016 and 2020 European Championships. I can’t tell you why we weakened so much, but our performance was really below criticism, we couldn’t lead normal attacks. Above all, I lacked the right mentality and playfulness, no one dared to fool one by one, which is also the explanation for the fact that we had almost no situation.
I am convinced that we will be fine for the October qualifiers, we need to put our defenses in order, we must not be individualized in the back, and if we move forward mentally, physically and in ball safety, I am sure we will beat Albania at home and return home from England.
Péter Várhidi, former federal captain: “We also lagged behind in motivation and attitude, we were comfortable”
We met three opponents with completely different perceptions. England, even in a domestic environment, was too big a wall for us. As a group leader, they demonstrated strength and stifled our game with reality. The performance seen in Albania is also a huge disappointment because we scored six points against them in two matches. We also lagged behind in motivation and attitude, we were comfortable, and their opponent chased us until they kicked the winning goal. Although we won against Andorra, we couldn’t add anything to the game, we didn’t have the entrepreneurial spirit, we passed a lot to the side and back, which proves that we didn’t have enough confidence after two defeats. Yet Andorra had beaten confidently with more goals in the past. There was no problem with the mentality, but there was nothing extra and a positive element to our game, it is typical that on the edges, Botka and Schön were our two most dangerous people, quite shocking that we barely had a situation.
Against Albania, we need to improve 100 percent, first and foremost, we need to change our perception, we need to play football with courage and a lot of entrepreneurship. Until that happens, we cannot expect progress. In England, decent standing is the goal, and in the other qualifiers we will need a series of feats.
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