Pellegrini insists he doesn't need trophies this season to keep Man City job

What pressure?

Manuel Pellegrini is adamant his job as Manchester City manager will be safe whatever happens this season.

City are facing up to the prospect of a trophyless campaign, with defeats to Barcelona and Liverpool in the past week leaving their Champions League and Premier League hopes in tatters.

Pellegrini has come under-fire for his tactics in the two games, and there has been intense speculation that he could be on his way out of the Etihad Stadium unless he can somehow salvage their season.

The Chilean, however, insists he is not feeling the pressure, and is convinced he will still be in charge beyond this summer even if he fails to win any silverware.

"I never have any pressure to win an amount of titles and to win a title every year if I want to continue here," said Pellegrini.

"I don't feel any pressure, especially from the media. I feel pressure only when I don't see my team playing the way I want to do it."

Prior to Pellegrini's appointment, chief executive Ferran Soriano spoke of an ambition to win five trophies in five seasons.

Pellegrini won two in his first season, the Premier League and the League Cup, but he insists he has not been told of any minimum requirement per year.

He said: "When I signed the contract, I was never told I must win a title every year or that I must win five trophies in five years.

"That was a sentence of Ferran. That is perfectly normal. But maybe you can win two in one year and one in another, the other another two.

"You never know in football. There are different ways to analyse the season. The title is important but it is not the only important thing."

Pep Guardiola, Diego Simeone and Carlo Ancelotti have already been identified as potential successors to Pellegrini in various reports, but he is not concerned about the conjecture.

He said: "I only think about the present. You never know what will happen in the future.

"You don't know if we are going to win against Barcelona or be out of the Champions League. Maybe last year nobody would say we were going to win the Premier League.

"To think about the future is the worst thing because you are just speculating about a lot of things. It is important to live life in the present.

"I have 25 years' experience of management at important clubs and I never feel the pressure."

As for critical analysis of his team's performance - by many players turned pundits - Pellegrini was indifferent.

"It is not my duty to tell the media what they must think," he said. "Everyone has his opinion and the right to give their opinion."