Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League on goal difference after coming from behind to draw 1-1 with Southampton at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola's side, who began the season with 10 straight victories, have now gone five games without a win in all competitions, equalling the Spaniard's worst run as a manager when he was at Barcelona.
"You can win 10 times and then you are not able to win five times," said Guardiola. "I have to discover the reason why and I am going to find that.
"We had problems creating our build-up. There is a difference between the first and second half. Unfortunately, we could not win."
It could have been even worse for City after they gifted Southampton the lead when a wayward pass from John Stones put Nathan Redmond in on goal after 27 minutes.
Moments later Stones thought he had atoned by bundling the ball into the net but his goal was disallowed for a Sergio Aguero offside.
Guardiola reacted to the poor first half by replacing Kevin De Bruyne with Kelechi Iheanacho, who made an immediate impact by scoring from close range after Fernandinho found Leroy Sane with an exquisite crossfield pass.
Saints remained a threat on the break and Claudio Bravo saved well from Charlie Austin on 74 minutes while Aguero went close at the other end, where Raheem Sterling was a constant threat as City pushed for the elusive winner.Guardiola spoke about the criticism he received after the defeat in Barcelona and about City's style of play: "I'm not going to change my style of play, I've won 21 titles in seven years".
Despite going 1-0 down in the early stages of the fixture, City remained competitive throughout, until Claudio Bravo was sent off for handling the ball outside of his own penalty box, but Guardiola believes there has lessons learned from the defeat.
"I saw many good things in the game: Stones, Sterling, Gundogan, De Bruyne... This was the first time they have played in Barcelona and they showed a lot of personality," said the coach. "They are young, and this will be good for the future of the club and England.
"We need time, plus many teams that concede a goal in Barcelona before the first 20 minutes are out of the game before the break.
"We were not and we tried to keep playing until we went down to 10 men."
After choosing to leave out Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany against Barcelona, the Catalan was pressed on his reasoning for the decisions.
"Kompany was not quite fit enough, that is all," said Guardiola. "As for Aguero, I wanted someone to play centrally and De Bruyne has good movement with his back to defenders.
"We wanted to keep the ball at the Camp Nou, so that was the intention.
"I spoke with Aguero before the match and he took it well."
Manchester City will look to retain their top spot in the Premier League with victory over Claude Puel's Southampton on Sunday.
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