As Paul McGinley's Europe celebrated an eighth Ryder Cup victory over the USA in the last 10 meetings last night at Gleneagles, Phil Mickelson delivered a withering assessment of Tom Watson's tenure at the American helm.

McGinley's European side, leading by a commanding 10-6 margin going into yesterday's final session of 12 matches, completed a comprehensive 16½-11½ triumph with Jamie Donaldson, the Welsh rookie, clinching the winning point with four matches still left on the course.

Europe's successful defence of the trophy, their third win a row, means the USA have not prevailed since 2008 and have not tasted victory on European soil since 1993.

Watson was the American captain the last time they succeeded on their travels 21 years ago but the return of the five-time Open champion to the role of skipper for the 2014 match has not altered the USA's fortunes in the biennial contest.

There have already been calls for Paul Azinger, the last American captain to win the Ryder Cup in 2008, to return to the post at Hazeltine in 2016. Mickelson continued to lead that particular campaign last night during an awkward post mortem in which the rumblings of discontent in the American camp became apparent.

Mickelson believes the USA need to return to the winning formula of Azinger's much-lauded pod system, an approach to captaincy whereby he created three groups of four players based on personality types that bonded, practised and played together.

"We have strayed from a winning formula in 2008 for the last three Ryder Cups and we need to consider maybe getting back to that formula that helped us play our best," he said.

"There were two things that allowed us to play our best that Paul Azinger did: one was he got everybody invested in the process. He got everybody invested in who they were going to play with, who the picks were going to be, who was going to be in their pod, when they would play, and they had a great leader for each pod.We hung out together and we were all invested in each other's play.

"We were invested in picking Hunter [Mahan] , we were invested in the process. The other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game plan for us; how we were going to go about doing this, how we were going to go about playing together, if so-and-so is playing well, if so-and-so is not playing well - we had a real game plan. Those two things helped us bring out our best golf."

Mickelson's comments were viewed not as a stab in the back, but more as a public assassination of Watson. Asked if he was being disloyal, Mickelson added: "Oh, I'm sorry you're taking it that way. I'm just talking about what Paul Azinger did to help us play our best."

Mickelson, a veteran of 10 Ryder Cups, sat out the whole of Saturday's play despite making a personal plea to Watson to allow him to play. It was the first time in his Ryder Cup career that he had missed a whole day. Watson's decision not to play in-form rookies, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, during Friday's afternoon foursomes was also seen as a tactical blunder. Asked whether he, or any team members, had been consulted in the decision-making, Mickelson said: "No, nobody here was in any decision."

Watson, sitting just a few seats away from Mickelson, listened to the former Masters champion praising Azinger endlessly. "It's not pods. It's 12 players," he snapped. "He has a difference of opinion. That's okay. My management philosophy is different. The bottom line is the Europeans kicked our butts. They were better players this week."

Jim Furyk, playing in his ninth Ryder Cup, was clearly reluctant to become involved in this raking over of the debris. He added: "I've known Phil my entire life and I have a lot of respect for our captain.

"I know he put his heart and soul in it for two years. I don't think it's wise for either one of us to be pitted in the middle of that. We all came here to try to win a Ryder Cup together. We've fallen short quite a bit. If I could put my finger on it, I would have changed this s*** a long time ago, but we haven't and we are going to keep searching."

As the Americans licked their wounds, McGinley savoured Europe's triumph under his captaincy, which has been widely praised by the players.

"I didn't execute the plan; all these guys sitting at this table did," McGinley said. "It's easy to put it in place. It's one thing to execute. I did the easy bit.

"They did the hard bit and I really mean that. I know what it's like to be there as a player. I know how difficult it is to play in a Ryder Cup.

"I know when your heart is jumping out of your chest how incredibly excited and nervous you are. But we relished this challenge."

McGinley has offered to help any of his successors continue Europe's dominance. The Irishman will have a say in deciding the captain for Hazeltine in 2016 and said: "The Ryder Cup has been very good to me and I'm quite happy now to take very much a background [role].

"I've got a role now in deciding who the next captain will be and we'll see where that goes in the next few months on behalf of the European Tour."