The manager absolutely deserves his fair share of robust criticism after that performance tonight, no doubt.
So do several of the players though. Not just tonight either, but all season. They downed tools with the last manager and they've done it again.
You have to look at the power behind the throne when this sort of thing happens again and again. Maybe knowing pep is apparently on his way has made them think "feck it, I'm going anyway, I'll take it easy from here on in". If that is the case and that prevailing attitude (which has clearly been allowed to fester all season) ends up costing us top four (which I still don't think will happen but no denying it is now a real possibility) who can guarantee that pep the saviour will still be rocking up here in the summer. Imagine he says to his bezzie mate "sorry pal, I don't manage teams outside the CL". That would for me mean summary dismissal for txiki and Soriano.
All that said, I'm one of those optimistic fools and still believe we are more likely to win the league than the above scenario so what the hell do I know?