Erling Haaland has warned his Manchester City teammates that they cannot search for excuses to defend their bitterly disappointing season.

While City could still mathematically end the campaign in second place, there is no denying they have fallen well short of expectations. Pep Guardiola’s side are 18 points behind champions Liverpool, with a slump which began in late October sparking a run of just one win in 13 games across all competitions.

City were dumped out of the Carabao Cup in the fourth round and underperformed so severly in the Champions League that they ended up failing to automatically qualify for the knockout stages and were ultimately knocked out by Real Madrid. They could, however, end with FA Cup glory to their name.

“This season has been tough,” Haaland told BBC Sport. “It is not nice to lose so many games. It is boring and not fun. That’s why we need to finish well and get a trophy.

“It is a good habit to reach Wembley and always important to win trophies. We have the FA Cup final to play for and in a horrific season we still managed to do this.”

Many have pointed to City’s battle with significant injuries as an explanation for their struggles. Ballon d’Or winner Rodri was struck down by a season-ending ACL injury in September, several centre-backs have been plagued by fitness issues all season and Haaland himself has missed over a month with an ankle injury, but the Norway international is adamant City cannot hide behind their injury record.

“We haven’t been stable enough this season and we haven’t won enough games, it is as simple as that,” he continued. “We have to perform better in the big games. We haven’t won enough consecutive games.

“Of course, we have had injuries throughout the season. But we should not search for excuses. Every single one of us hasn’t been good enough and we haven’t been at our best, so when you are not at your best you aren’t going to win games in this country because it’s so hard.”