FA Cup Final - Post Game thread

This season City have played 59 competitive matches and have lost only 5. We have won a forth successive PL championship, a feat achieved by no other team in English football history. We missed out on a unique second successive double at the last hurdle because the team had a collective off day, and off days for City are rare indeed. And let's be clear, players don't perform poorly by choice. Off days seem to have a life of their own and it is doubly unfortunate when the team has an off day for a final.

I'm not getting involved in a debate about which side deserved the win because it is irrelevant now. But it's important to point out that we have been vulnerable on occasions to long balls over the top and both their goals came when we lost the ball which was then played long. The first then resulted from poor play by Stefan who came far too far for a ball ha couldn't get and from Gvardiol who headed the ball at his own goal instead of leaving it completely or hust heading it out towards touch. In brief then, there was nothing sophisticated about the rags' gameplan but wer are vulnerable to this approach at times. Pep will give it some attention for next season. Similarly we ran into problems in encountering a low block which have been problematic at times in the past when we're not at our best.

What I will say in conclusion is that, although we did not play at all well, Haaland hit the bar, Alvarez missed a chance he should have taken and Doku scored from a shot the 'keeper should have saved. Three goals we could have got, one they should not have had - and we lost 2-1 .....
 
Piss poor today but when I try to rationalise it then I reckon the effort taken to win the league totally drained our senior players in particular. They were empty husks with absolutely nothing left to give.

Major squad revamp incoming hopefully as some are in danger of falling off the hill rather than merely being over it.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
Beaten in away we knew was the only way we could be beaten.

Ball over the top, City not at our best.

Absolutely scandalous bottle job by Madeley after 40 seconds and VAR even more so! Not even close.

Thereafter, United clogged the midfield and man-marked Rodri out of the first 15-20 mins.

KDB looked like he thought it was a testimonial and has really struggled to find any consistency since his return. This summer will be interesting for him.

Back line looked fragile, with Stones playing Garnacho onside for the first, then Walker not getting back for the second, leaving Stones fucked when the ball came in to Fernandes, whose touch to Mainoo was spectacular.

We restricted their chances, but the ones they had, they buried and poor mistakes by City.

Hopefully, this is the kick up the arse that Txiki needs to rebuild this team. We are starting to look old and slow, which is fine when we have 80% possession and completely in control, but is an absolute liability when a team attacks us with a high press and strong counterattacking.

We have clearly been the best team in England for a fair few years, and the best team in the world last year, but the writing is on the wall…loud and clear.

Many of us have openly questioned if Pep has any interest in Plan B, but to be fair we have changed things up inside numerous games this season. However, Plans A thru Z are worthless if you don’t have the personnel to execute when Plan A isn’t working.

It is almost unbelievable to be so disappointed given the heights City have achieved over the last 12-13 years, but it feels like this was a tipping point.

I’m not going to go through the squad man by man, but the experienced foundation of our climb to the top of the mountain feels like it is on the downslope, and a significant refresh is required to keep City in the hunt for the top, top honours.

We live in interesting times and I wonder what the City 25/26 squad will look like given today’s player profile, with next season feeling like a BIG transition season.
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Change the 40 seconds penalty appeal to 40 minutes and it’s given all day long, you are correct, they really really didn’t want to give us a pen as it was too early
 
jamesha said:
Rags wanted it more than City and had some very good individual performances. If not for the clusterfuck of the first goal I think we would have won. Let's see if the tags sack Poundland Pep now
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Based on his post match interviews he’s gone and he already knows it
 
No point in sugar coating the players were not at it first half. Pretty poor performances all round.

Think Pep got it wrong with the team selection. I think we all know if that had been a Champs lge final we would not have been watching Ake and Stones at centre half. Stones had not had a look in this year and we needed Akanji’s pace to sweep up as Uniteds only threat was going to be quick counters/balls over the top and Ortega struggles in that area.
 
My concern is not loosing the fa cup but the team is getting weaker and we are not doing much about .we need quality signing
 
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