Raheem Sterling backs England manager Gareth Southgate

Raheem Sterling has backed England manager Gareth Southgate, insisting that the Three Lions are heading in the right direction despite recent form.

England have endured a rather torrid run of results of late, failing to win any of their last five games and suffering relegation in the Nations League thanks to the 1-0 defeat to Italy at San Siro on Friday.

Ahead of the Three Lions' final game prior to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Sterling talked the press about the team's form and Southgate's position as manager:

"We all know that is what comes with football and playing at the highest level. You are under scrutiny and a lot of it is unfair, of course, but that is the level we are at with England.

"We are always under that pressure to win, and this small loss of form is not something we need to panic about. We now have a big opportunity coming up in the winter to go out and show what we can do again.

 "For what he [Southgate] has done since he has been in the job, he's taken us to a semi-final and a final, and it just shows the direction we are going in.

"Yes, we know we are not at the level we can be right now, but I still think we have positives to look at. He's always tried to make the environment really calm for us so that we can go out there and do what we need to do on the football field.

"After the summer, we all had to come away and look at ourselves. None of us were proud of those performances and I don't think it is for Gareth to shoulder all of that blame.

"We've got players in our squad that have played at the highest level, and we need to take some of that responsibility and start to put some of these performances right, and win football matches. That is what we are here for. We are not a country here to just take part, we want to win things. We've spoken as a collective and I think we are in the right state to put things right."