The defending champions are second in the Premier League and on 16 points, eight behind Liverpool, who have won all of their eight games.

City have lost twice - 3-2 at Norwich and 2-0 at home to Wolves on Sunday - and drew 2-2 with Tottenham.

"We need to fix our situation and drop as few points as possible," said 28-year-old Gundogan.

"It's not that easy to take these things and see your biggest rival win all the time, with things that you can't control.

"We're the side that have struggled quite a bit more and they have continued better. That's a fact we want to change."

Germany international Gundogan, who joined City for £20m from Borussia Dortmund in 2016, helped City win the title in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Two seasons ago City reached a Premier League record 100 points and retained their title with 98 points - one ahead of Liverpool - last season.

At this point of 2018-19, City were unbeaten and top with 20 points from eight games, ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool on goal difference.

Asked if the 2019-20 title race was over, Gundogan said: "It's quite early in the season and there are still a lot of points to play for, but if we want to speak about the Premier League title, we have to hope Liverpool will drop points.

"That's a fact we can't be happy with and we aren't. But there is nothing else to do but make it better in the next game, which is our target.

"Watching their [Liverpool's] games and situation doesn't really help us - we need to fix our situation and drop as few points as possible.

"We have to play better, the 11 on the pitch, and do much better than we did on Sunday."

Gundogan is in the Germany squad for Wednesday's friendly against Argentina at Dortmund's Westfalenstadionand and the Euro 2020 qualifier in Estonia on Sunday.