MANCHESTER -- Manuel Pellegrini has admitted he is unhappy with Yaya Toure's performances this season and says the midfielder is equally disappointed with himself.
Toure, 31, became only the second central midfielder to score 20 goals in a Premier League campaign last term.
However, he has only struck eight times this season and struggled for form both at the start of the campaign and after returning from the African Nations Cup in February.
"I don't think he's happy with his performance this year -- and nor am I," Pellegrini said in a news conference. "But we must support him and return him to his normal performance."
Toure was accused of a "dereliction of duty" by former Manchester United captain Gary Neville for his approach to defending in last week's 4-2 Manchester derby defeat.
Pellegrini, though, has ruled out giving Toure a break and pointed out that only earlier this season City were accused of being overly reliant on the midfielder.
He said: "Maybe if we play without Yaya when he was at the African Nations 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 until the end of the season.
"He doesn't need a break. For a lot of reasons he's not the same player he was last season but he continues being a very important player for our team.
"It's very easy when you don't get the results to single out one player but remember in January people said we were [only] one player and it was Yaya. That's when we started with bad results -- it was just because this team was Yaya.
"The only player we had was Yaya and without him we couldn't win -- I don't think it was true. He's not playing well in parts of the game. But in some parts he is playing well and he will continue playing."
Pellegrini himself is under mounting pressure after a run of six defeats in eight games, but he declared he is eager to stay at the Etihad Stadium.
"I'm very happy," he added. "This is one of the most important clubs in the world. I'm very happy with the fans, the owner, the players. I'm unhappy with the results, especially this year. But I'm very happy here."
Pellegrini's contract expires in 2016 -- as does Pep Guardiola's at Bayern Munich -- but he insisted he is not concerned that City are yet to open talks about an extended deal, or that speculation continues that he is a stopgap until the Spaniard becomes available.
"All of you can say what you want," he said. "It's not a problem for me."