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 a total of six Premier League titles since joining the club 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."
City are hoping to reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the seventh consecutive season when they take on Bournemouth at the quarter-final stage on Sunday at the Vitality Stadium (16:30 BST).
But Guardiola says even victory in the competition and qualifying for the Champions League by finishing in the top four would not make amends for their failed Premier League title defence.
"Of course it would be nice to arrive in the final of the FA Cup and win it, and qualify for the Champions League," said Guardiola.
"That would be a big success but the season has been poor and it's not going to change.
"Our standards and many things were not good, this is the reality. That's not going to change for the fact we win one title or qualify for the Champions League.
"We'll be happy, of course. We want to do it but the season has not been good."
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