Manchester City favourite Pablo Zabaleta has defended under-fire boss Manuel Pellegrini, claiming that the veteran Chilean merits more respect from the footballing world.

Pellegrini has been under mounting pressure in recent months as City have fallen away from a serious Premier League title defence, with many suggesting that his time in the Etihad dugout could be up in the summer after a season of failure.

But full-back Zabaleta feels such criticism is unfair, especially considering Pellegrini's track record as a manager - which includes a league and FA Cup double last season.

"We cannot blame just the manager for this moment," Zabaleta stated. "Individual players have also not been great in the whole season.

"Everyone is responsible - when you don't win titles it can be a little bit frustrating for everyone."

Numerous managers including Carlo Ancelotti and Jürgen Klopp have been linked with replacing Pellegrini, but following the revelation of Klopp's departure from Borussia Dortmund, City chiefs announced that Pellegrini was to stay in his job.

But 30-year-old Zabaleta says that City's focus should be on the present, more precisely their upcoming fixtures with Spurs and QPR.

"Now is not the time to be thinking about what went wrong this season, it's just the time to finish as good as we can," he continued. "Then we'll see what happens.

"It's not for me to say what should and should not happen.

"For the players, the owners, the manager and the staff, we are 100 per cent focused on what we are doing now.

"Then at the end of the season the right people will analyse what went wrong. The people responsible in every part of the club will decide what is best for the future."

Zabaleta went on to pinpoint his summer at the World Cup - in which his Argentina team lost in the final - as one of the reasons for a drop in his individual form.

"From my point of view it has been hard after the World Cup - we only had 20 days' holiday. Mentally and physically it's been really tough, the Premier League is one of the most competitive in the world in terms of the physical demands.

"It seems for a lot of players who were at the World Cup this season has been very tough - not just in England.

"But when you look at the team, with the players we've got you expect to play much better football. We must be honest with ourselves and recognise that it was not our best season.

"Sometimes football is like that but at City it seems one disappointing season is like a disaster. Maybe it's because we've won the Premier League twice, the FA Cup, the Capital One.

"Now it seems like because we have not won something it's a disaster and we have to change seven or eight players, the manager. That's what people say."

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Sam France
Former Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Features Editor at VAVEL UK, part of the VAVEL team 2014-2018.