Eintracht Frankfurt coach Armin Veh has warned that criticism of him and his team is not going to help them avoid relegation this season.
Defeat to Cologne on Sunday has left the Eagles just a point above the relegation playoff position and some of the fans are showing signs of impatience.
While Veh acknowledges that is a normal reaction, he says that it is not helpful and that the team instead need to feel the support of their fans.
"It's been unsettling, but that's understandable," he said at a news conference. "It's not that it helps anybody, though.
"Just ask the teams who have already been relegated, where things really got dramatic."
With irony, Veh added: "Sure that helped them a lot. It always helps. It's always the same too.
"You reach the stage when the fans start to take it out on the team, just because it helps. We saw that here four or five years ago. It was a real help."
Frankfurt were relegated in 2011 despite having one of the best first halves of a season in the club's history, and it was Veh who led them back into the top flight and then into Europe before he resigned and moved to Stuttgart in 2014, returning in June last year.
"I can understand that some of the frustration is down to me and because I left the club two years ago, which is perfectly fair," Veh continued.
"I can feel that and it's not comfortable, but I am just trying to do my job the best I can.
"We are all trying to do our job as well as we can. And anyway, it is still only sport, nothing more and nothing less.
"There are far bigger problems in the world than football. When I see some of the questions being asked here, then I wonder why you don't just lock me up."