Bernardo Silva sends clear message to Man City team-mates after Sporting Lisbon defeat

Bernardo Silva has issued a rallying cry for improvement as Manchester City seek to reverse their sudden dip in form, following a third consecutive loss. City's slump deepened with a staggering 4-1 defeat at Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Despite being hampered by injuries, Silva made it clear that there are no excuses. The Portuguese maestro said: "It’s very disappointing, very frustrating, definitely a really bad moment for us." We have to take responsibility and accept that we’re not doing things well and we need to do better.

"No excuses with the players that we have at the moment. We need to perform better to be at the higher level. We’ll just look at ourselves individually, collectively, and see what we can do better because we need to turn things around."

A small glimmer of hope was Kevin De Bruyne's return for the last six minutes after a long absence, but defensive woes remain evident with John Stones and Ruben Dias out, and Kyle Walker along with Nathan Ake benched due to recent fitness concerns.

Rookie Jamhai Simpson-Pusey faced major challenges on his full debut during an unnerving evening for Pep Guardiola’s men, who still miss vital players like Rodri and Jack Grealish. The team now focuses on their upcoming Premier League encounter with Brighton on Saturday.

Silva added: "One more game before the international break, which will definitely be good for us, because at the moment, with the injuries that we have, and with the psychological part as well, it will be good to have that rest.

"We cannot find excuses, but we cannot deny that the guys that we have injured and are not available are a big miss. But before that we have a big game again, a very tough game. Brighton away is never easy. Three points would help massively to keep us in the race or in a good position to come back and be still close to the top. We’ll look at ourselves and try to do better next Saturday."

City seemed set for an easy victory after Phil Foden's fourth-minute opener and their first-half dominance. However, the match shifted when Viktor Gyokeres and Maximiliano Araujo scored around half-time, followed by a Gyokeres penalty and his hat-trick from another penalty, while Erling Haaland missed one for City.

Silva added: "In the first half I think we had things under control, or at least looked under control. We got to half-time 1-1, but in five minutes we completely gave the game away."