Gareth Southgate admits he should take the "brunt" of the criticism directed at England - as pressure grows on him and his team ahead of the World Cup.
Southgate is facing calls to be sacked after a dreadful run of form. The Three Lions were relegated from the top-flight of the Nations League after picking up just two points from six games and haven't won since the 3-0 triumph against the Ivory Coast in March.
England remain one of the favourites to win the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, which starts on November 20, and Southgate will fear for his job if his team crash out of the tournament early on. His contract doesn't expire until after Euro 2024 but that is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
"The fact is, our results haven't been as good and therefore people are going to ask questions about that and inevitably that comes onto either the players or the manager," Southgate told ESPN. "Rightly, as the manager, I should bear the brunt of that.
"It is my job to take the heat for the team. I've had to lead through a different period, through a different type of narrative than I've had over the last five or six years."
Southgate has been in charge of England's men since September 2016. He was initially appointed on a temporary basis to succeed Sam Allardyce following his controversial resignation, but quickly established himself as the right person for the tough job.
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Southgate is the most successful England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey. He guided the Three Lions to the final of Euro 2020 - where they lost to Italy on penalties at Wembley - and also reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018 and the Nations League in 2019.
On England's tough period, Southgate added: "At some point, that was inevitable, I think. It might have come 18 months into the job. It would certainly have come if we hadn't done as well in Russia or if we hadn't done as well in the Euros.
"We understand some of the reasons why we've had difficult results across the summer, not least the quality of the matches we've played.
"We've played the Nations League three times, we've learned so much from the games, but it has meant 18 competitive matches against top-tier opposition that previous England teams have never had to deal with. I think it has helped us for the tournaments but it has definitely been harder working between the tournaments."
Southgate's side have a relatively easy World Cup group. Their tournament starts against Iran in Al Rayyan on November 21 before taking on the United States in Al Khor four days later. England's final group game is against Wales in Al Rayyan on November 29.
Southgate continued: "As long as we've got a clear understanding of that and rationale for that and that we don't get distracted by the noise outside of our camp, which will always be there in one form or another, then actually the period we've been through, we're better for it."
