Rodri says Manchester City's "reality" is that they're "not at the level" required and slammed his team's "kids' mistakes" in their defeat at Brighton.
City suffered their second defeat in their opening three games of the Premier League season after throwing away their lead in a second-half collapse.
James Milner's penalty cancelled out Erling Haaland's deserved opener before Brajan Gruda netted an 89th-minute winner to leave Rodri seething.
"Disappointed because we are Manchester City and we come here to win, but this is the reality. We are not at the level for a long, long time," he told Sky Sports. "The only way to come back is to look to ourselves. We started well, but the second half we dropped a little bit. Then at home they have pressure and we make two mistakes and it's 2-1.
"We are missing the level. It is a matter of the team and the changes. New players have to adapt, and of course, when you change the team that much, it is difficult. This is our reality, it is not for excuses and we have to see that this is not the way to achieve things.
"I do think that we had control of the game and we were not our best. We did not create our best match but today we should win because we made two big mistakes and counter-attacks. Some of the mistakes we are making are kids' mistakes; you are not concentrating and paying attention. The reality is that we have to raise the level if we want to compete."
Rodri shone in the first half, having the most touches, passes completed and possession regains on his first league start since suffering an ACL injury last September, but faded in the second half as Brighton overran the Man City midfield.
"I'm not Messi. I'm not going to come back and just make the team win and win and win. This is a collective," said Rodri.
"When we won in the past, I needed all my team-mates. For sure, I need to recover my best level and we have to look to all of ourselves, it is a collective sport. Hopefully, after the [international] break we can be much better."
Pep Guardiola made four changes from their defeat at Tottenham as Rodri replaced Nico Gonzales in midfield, Bernardo Silva came in for the injured Rayan Cherki, Abdukodir Khusanov started at centre-back instead of Ruben Dias and Matheus Nunes replaced Rico Lewis at right-back.
The new-look defence nullified Brighton in the first half and James Trafford was Man City's best player, having kept his place in goal despite the error he made against Spurs. However, his defence were exposed in the second half by Brighton's energy and forward running. Once Milner had equaliser, Man City played longer, but it didn't work.
"We forgot to play. If we decide to play long, it's fine, more direct, but we have to be ready to be there," said Guardiola. "We were not ready to win the second [balls].
"We played really, really good in the beginning, we conceded the goal and after that, we are a little bit more unstable. Not unstable because I know how good they are, how strong they are. It's because we forget to continue playing. We never, never can stop playing."
Man City have taken only three points from a possible nine, but Guardiola is upbeat about their progress.
"There is not one team in England in 35 years that has been the same. The people change, the team changes, the players change. And we changed a lot last season and this season," he said.
"For the players, we have a fine base, I would say. Our base is still really, really good. And the new players are really good too. It's a question of click. It's a question of momentum. When we are going to start winning games, it's going to happen."
