Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says his performance as manager this season has been “really poor”.

City, Premier League champions in each of the last four seasons, are fifth in the table and 22 points behind leaders Liverpool with nine matches remaining.

Guardiola, who has guided City to six Premier League titles since joining in 2016, has never finished a season lower than third with any club during his managerial career.

Asked how he rates his own work as manager this term, Guardiola, 54, said: “This season? Really poor.

“The opponents never gave us a red carpet to win the titles that we won in the past. My duty was to overcome the situation much better than I have done [this season].”

He said the reason this has happened are “a few details”, adding: “Hopefully this will not happen next season. This is important.”