Erling Haaland admitted that his and Manchester City’s recent performances have not been good enough but backed boss Pep Guardiola to “find a solution”.

City have now won just once in their last 12 games since losing 2-1 at Aston Villa this lunchtime, with goals from John Duran and Morgan Rodgers putting the hosts in control before Phil Foden’s late consolation.

Haaland was once again a peripheral figure as City struggled to impose themselves in the face of some ferocious pressure from Villa and the Norway striker admits improvement is needed, both individually and collectively.

Man City have now lost nine of their last 12 games in all competitions…

That’s more than their previous 106 matches combined (8) 🤯 pic.twitter.com/jpznVDfRKh

– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 21, 2024

Haaland – That’s not good enough

He told TNT Sports: “Of course we’re disappointed, it’s not good enough. That’s not good enough from me.

“They’re good players, it’s hard to come here but we’re Man City, we have to be out there. We have to keep going, we have to believe and keep working hard.

“We have to continue. First I’m looking at myself, I’m not doing things well enough, I’m not scoring my chances. I want to do better, I haven’t been good enough.”

Defeat continues to be arguably the biggest crisis of Guardiola’s managerial career but Haaland backed the Catalan to guide City through the storm.

“He won the Premier League six times in seven years, so we’ll never forget that,” he added.

“He will find solutions. He has been doing this every year. We still believe in them, we just have to work harder now than ever.

“We know how important confidence is and you can see it affects every human being. That’s the way it is, we have to keep going and stay positive even when it’s hard.

“We struggle to score and we concede goals” 😳

Pep Guardiola gives @julesbreach His analysis of Man City’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa…

📺 @tntsports And @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/eTiBhWdZgf

– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 21, 2024

We are going to regain confidence – Guardiola

Guardiola was disappointed with his team’s second-half performance.

He told TNT Sports: “We had a really good first half, second half we gave up. We changed our pressure because John (Stones) couldn’t continue.

“We had good moments, we had chances, more chances than the (Manchester) United game, but in the second half we dropped and our pressure was not good enough. We finally got a goal, but it was too late.

“We struggle to score and we concede goals.”

He is confident that City will come out of this situation and regain their trust.

“Step by step, we have great personalities in the team and sooner or later we will find them,” he said.