Pep Guardiola believes his Manchester City side is suffering because they are not quite playing perfectly at the minute.
City drew 1-1 with Southampton on Sunday after a mistake from John Stones led to Nathan Redmond's 27th-minute goal.
It was the second match in a row that a glaring error had led to an opposition goal, following Claudio Bravo's horror show against Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
However, Guardiola does not believe such high-profile mistakes are the reason for City's shortcomings of late, having failed to win in five matches since their 10-game winning run to start the season.
"It's hard for us, yes. The opponents at the end, they don't do too much, long balls and sometimes counter-attacks," said the Spaniard, who had Kelechi Iheanacho to thank for forcing the draw.
"But today I think it is not part of the reason. The difference between the first half and the second half was obvious and that is what we have to realise.
"Today with John and Wednesday with Claudio, that is not the reason. Against Everton we miss two penalties and we play amazing and didn't win.
"It is something more and about the team and how you rebel, how you react. When you see the second half it is because these guys are good and I have to help them to achieve and to reach (the performance) in the second half, when it is 11 against 11 in Barcelona and in the second half against Everton.
"I know when you start (at a new club) it is always difficult. We start quite well.
"Now in that moment we are not in that rhythm we had before. We didn't have 90 bad, bad minutes. But when we are not perfect, we concede a lot."