Rodri Claims Manchester City Need to 'Wake Up' & Eliminate Individual Mistakes

Manchester City midfielder Rodri has said his side must 'wake up' and learn from the defensive mishaps that cost them against Norwich City, saying that their hectic forthcoming schedule means there is no more room for error.

The defending champions found themselves on their heels against Daniel Farke's men, and were two goals behind after half an hour at Carrow Road. 

Sergio Aguero briefly gave Pep Guardiola's side hope, but Norwich weren't to be denied, and after Nicolas Otamendi was caught sleeping on the ball by Emiliano Buendia, Teemu Pukki put the game out of reach - with a late consolation from Rodri not enough to bridge the gap. 

And the Spaniard was pulling no punches in his assessment after the game, saying the blame lies with the mistakes they made at the back.

"I think we lost this game because of us," the midfielder told City's website.

"I think they don't do many things to win this game. Of course, congratulations to Norwich, they play really good football, but today we gave them chances.

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"That's something we have to look at ourselves and solve our mistakes. It's not normal. The three goals are mistakes. The team is working, we are down now but we have to wake up because we have matches every three days."

The 23-year-old went on, however, saying that while far from ideal, it's still early enough in the season that the defeat is no disaster for City.

"The season is very long," he added. "You are going to have matches like this, at least two or three. It's normal. We are not perfect, and the good thing is we are at the start of the season not the end.

"That's the only positive thing we can say. We are five points behind the leaders and that's bad news but we are working and we will keep pushing."