Manuel Pellegrini has admitted to not being happy with Yaya Touré's form this year, although the Manchester City manager defended the midfielder as he believes the champions' slump is not the fault of one player.

City host West Ham United on Sunday having dropped from joint-top on New Year’s Day to fourth place. Touré has attracted criticism for his uneven displays and although Pellegrini conceded that he and the Ivorian are not content, he robustly defended the 31-year-old.

Pressed that Touré’s statistics are down on last season, Pellegrini said: “I don’t think he’s happy with his performance this year – and nor am I. But we must support him and return him to his normal performance. Maybe if we play without Yaya when he was at the Africa Cup and we’d won all the games, then he comes back and we start losing, maybe then you think that. Yaya needs support, he’s a very important player and he will have my support till the end of the season.”

City are four points ahead of fifth-placed Liverpool and a further point better off than Southampton, who are sixth. Pellegrini did not wish to discuss the implications of failing to qualify for the Champions League, saying the campaign would be discussed when it was over.

Impossible “Every time you finish the season you must analyse, winning or losing,” he said. “I don’t think if we lost the next six games it will be the same analysis as if we win the next six games. Maybe winning the six games you finish second, maybe losing the six you finish eighth, so it is impossible to make the same analysis. After that you must review the whole season. I don’t think in a negative way. We are still in the Champions League places.

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Pellegrini denied that opponents had worked out how City now play. “No, every manager knows how we work, how we play. The problem we have this year is that we’ve scored 26 goals less; it’s not because we are not creating chances. If we never created chances, maybe we’d change the system but we always do.” Guardian Service