A vintage FA Cup season had its vintage ending. Perhaps a second half that did not live up to the extraordinary drama of the first meant that this was not quite a classic final, but it was one packed with incident and storyline, from Jean-Philippe Mateta’s glorious return after his horror injury at Millwall, to a missed penalty, a heroic goalkeeper inspired by the memory of his late father and a debutant substitute.
However, as well as Crystal Palace played, at its heart was Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola making a series of decisions so striking they could not but raise the familiar specter of overthinking.
“If we meet again, you can’t play in this system because we will solve it,” Crystal Palace head coach Oliver Glasner told Guardiola after Manchester City beat Palace 5-2 last month. If that was intended as a mind game, it worked brilliantly; Guardiola’s cup final team featured just three players — Nico O’Reilly, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol — operating in the same positions as they had played in that game.
Photo: AFP
By contrast, Palace showed only one difference from that game, Marc Guehi restored on the left side of defense, having been suspended for the fixture at the Etihad Stadium.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
The most striking of the City changes was the deployment of Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva at the back of midfield.
Thoughts immediately went back to 2021 and Guardiola’s decision not to pick a holding player against Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League final.
It is perhaps overly simplistic to say that the effectiveness of Palace on the break was a consequence — their pace and directness have troubled City sufficiently in the recent past, whatever the makeup of the midfield — but equally, it did not help.
The pairing perhaps ensured City had more of the ball, but it also meant they were more susceptible to Palace’s counter when they came. It was just such a break that led to Palace’s winner.
However, that was not the only oddity. Why did he start with Savinho, who has not scored a domestic goal this year, and Jeremy Doku, whose only goals this year have come against Ipswich and Salford? Could anybody claim to be surprised that City ran out of ideas in the second half?
They played in a way that allowed misfortune to derail them. Would it have been so outlandish to play something closer to the side that had beaten Palace by three goals last month?
Then there was the introduction of Claudio Echeverri from the bench with 14 minutes remaining.
Throwing on a 19-year-old who had not even been an unused substitute before for his debut in a cup final is one of those moves so bold that it can only ever be regarded as genius or folly.
Given he wasted two decent opportunities with shots too close to Palace keeper Henderson, it would inevitably be regarded as the latter.
TROPHYLESS
After Guardiola’s first trophyless season since his first at City in 2016-2017, there must inevitably, perhaps for the first time, be the beginnings of doubts about his capacities.
Guardiola is very unusual in being both revolutionary and capable of perpetual evolution. To have been as consistently successful as he has been over 16 years is extremely rare, but all managers begin to decline at some point.
The process, if it is happening, could be gradual; summer passing into autumn does not mean the sun never shines, merely that the days of relentless glory might be drawing to a close.
Clearly, Guardiola is not the only issue at City this season. He is almost certainly not even the main issue, given Rodri’s absence and some curious recruitment.
However, it would fall on Guardiola to try to restore City to previous greatness — and there is uncertainty whether he has the energy to build another great team.
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