Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher pulled no punches in their scathing assessments of Manchester City's performance during the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield.
Neville felt Sunday's showing was far from what is to be expected of title challengers and indeed of last season's champions.
Meanwhile, Carragher, who also writes a column for MailSport, has questioned the suitability of City manager Manuel Pellegrini's tactics.
'If I was a Manchester City player, I'd be embarrassed how easy it is to play through them,' Neville said during live match commentary.
'We're judging Manchester City as champions of the Premier League. There has to be progression year on year, you have to get better. But this team, we keep seeing the same mistakes being made'
Prior to the Liverpool game, questions had been raised over Pellegrini's decision to play with two strikers and leave his midfield exposed.
With flair players David Silva and Samir Nasri also not fulfilling their defensive duties, the Chilean's bold selections appeared to have signaled some oversight.
And in the post-match analysis, Carragher offered his opinion: 'To employ that system (4-4-2) in the big games is so naive. It's embarrassing really for a manager at that level to go into a game against Barcelona two years running and then again at Anfield like this.'
'Something is not right about City and there has to be changes at the end of the season.'
The defeat leaves City second in the Premier League table, but they are five points off the pace of leaders Chelsea who have a game in hand.
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