Manchester City's Champions League humiliation at the hands of Barcelona once again exposed the cult of Pep Guardiola, according to RTÉ analyst Eamon Dunphy.
The Premier League suffered a 4-0 defeat at the Nou Camp as a Lionel Messi hat-trick and a fourth from Neymar, condemned Guardiola to a bitter return to his old stomping ground.
Guardiola started the game with star striker Sergio Aguero on the bench and finished the game with 10 men after goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was sent off trying to play the ball out of defence.
The performance, against a below-par Barcelona, left Dunphy and fellow RTÉ panellists Richie Sadlier and Liam Brady with very few positives to take from a City perspective.
"I thought they were a shapeless shambles from start to finish," Dunphy said. "They were terrible.
"The decision to leave Aguero out of the team was mystifying. In truth, Barcelona weren't anything like they can be. They took advantage of the shambles that was put in front of them.
"The story of the night is the humiliation of Pep, going back to the Nou Camp.
"I think there is a cult around Pep Guardiola and I thought the Premier League would test him. I still think he has a lot to prove, because I think he is trying to prove that he has found a new way of doing things that are as old as the history of the gamer. and he hasn't."
"Tonight is the culmination of vanity on his part, hubris perhaps, and they got a hiding."
Bravo's failure to put the ball in Row Z illustrated Guardiola's lack of respect to the game, Dunphy added.
The Chilean goalkeeper was sent off after a moment of madness saw Bravo handle a shot from Luis Suarez after he had charged out of his area and given the ball away.
The red card came with City a goal down and ended any hopes of a comeback for Guardiola's side, and his insistence on playing the ball out from the back was ridiculed by Dunphy.
"You respect the game. You would have kicked that out to Row Z. That's respecting the game," Dunphy said.
"It's what's always had to happen when your team has an emergency. You don't get tricky there.
"It's just disrespectful to the game, the idea that a goalkeeper can have the skillset of a midfield player. That's nonsense."
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