Manchester City midfielder Rodri has slammed his teammates performance following their 2-1 loss to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.
Rodri, 29, made his first league start since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury last season, but could not prevent his side from a second straight defeat following last week’s home loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
Pep Guardiola’s side had suffered a first defeat of the season in their last league match, going down 2-0 to Spurs at the Etihad Stadium and needed a result to close the gap on their title rivals.
Erling Haaland, on his 100th appearance for the club, opened the scoring with a tidy finish in the 34th minute, picking up a loose ball in the box after good work by Omar Marmoush.
“I’m not Messi,” Rodri told Sky Sports afterwards. “I’m not going to come back and just make the team win and win and win. This is a collective. When we won in the past, I needed all my teammates.
Disappointed because we are Manchester City and we come here to win, but this is the reality. We are not at the level for a long, long time. The only way to come back is to look to ourselves. We started well but the second half, we dropped a little bit. Then at home they have pressure and we make two mistakes and it’s 2-1”, he continued.
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler made a quadruple substitution in the second half, turning the game in his side’s favor.
James Milner equalized from the spot in the 67th minute after a handball by Matheus Nunes, before Brajan Gruda netted a late winner for the hosts.
“We are missing the level. I don’t know, call it how you want. It is a matter of the team and the changes, new players have to adapt, and of course, when you change the team that much it is difficult. This is our reality, it is not for excuses and we have to see this is not the way to achieve things. let’s go to the break and refresh the mind”, Rodri added.
“I do think that we had control of the game and we were not our best. We did not create our best match, but today we should win because we concede two big mistakes and counter-attacks. Some of the mistakes we are doing are kids’ mistakes. You are not concentrating and paying attention. The reality is that we have to raise the level if we want to compete.”
Man City have to regroup ahead of their next league clash, the Manchester derby against struggling Manchester United after the international break.
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