Victory In The FA Cup Will Not Save Manchester City, But Can Trigger Re-development

JAKARTA - For Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, the bad season will end soon at Wembley in the FA Cup final, Saturday, May 17, 2025.

In north London 12 months ago, in the 1-2 defeat to Manchester United in the FA Cup final, Guardiola saw the first minor signs of potential problems in the future.

At the time, he considered the surprising result his own tactical error.

However, since then, what appeared to be an incident has grown to be the worst season of The Citizens for nearly a decade.

Guardiola and his players will return to Wembley to face Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final. As with the defeat to Manchester United which sparked a sharp decline, there is hope that lifting trophies could trigger a climb back to the top of English and European football.

"We've never fought in the Premier League or Champions League and it's not good enough for a club like Manchester City."

"We have to finish strong in the Premier League and win the FA Cup. Then, we have to start focusing on next season," Erling Haaland said in an interview with ESPN.

Guardiola has insisted that defeating Palace won't save their bad season -- the standard is too high for that-- but maybe it could give momentum ahead of the 2025/2026 season and the struggle to reclaim the Premier League title from Liverpool.

Guardiola has changed his mind about what went wrong against Manchester United a year ago.

Soon after, he blamed a shocking defeat to Erik ten Hag's side who were struggling on a bad game plan.

He still thinks that he made a mistake - especially his instructions about where to attack Manchester United - but he's also starting to think, for the first time during a government time in Manchester City, that maybe his focus wasn't right.

When asked to reflect on it a few months later, he said that everyone was too late after marking their fourth consecutive Premier League title record.

Of course he didn't speak literally, but after watching the game again, there was an impression that the players were too passive in the first half.

With the noise surrounding Manchester United and Ten Hag's future, The Citizens almost seemed to believe they just needed to bounce back to win. The second half was better, but by then, they were already 0-2 behind, and it was too late.

Guardiola faced many questions about the motivation of his players after winning trebles in 2023. The question was answered firmly, namely winning another title the following season.

The feeling that the desire faded this season made Guardiola surprised. He doesn't want to talk too much about this season.

He shifted topics by presenting other reasons, such as damaging injuries and failures, which have been agreed by more than one player.

"We don't fully have hunger in us yet. I'm not good enough. I haven't helped the team enough. In the end, we weren't good enough," said Haaland.

This sentiment follows something Ilkay Gundogan told ESPN last month.

"I feel in many matches, maybe we sometimes attach too much importance to tactics and don't pay too much attention to behavior, behavior of ourselves."

"Has determination, desire, aggressiveness. Like simple things that are part of the game, but maybe sometimes you think too much about your position or whatever."

"You may forget other natural things or at least what should be natural," said the German midfielder.

For Manchester City, this has been part of the storm. Although everything went smoothly during the title wins in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, various factors have contributed to the decline in results this season.

The serious injury suffered by key players such as Rodri clearly had an impact. In addition to the Spanish midfielder who won the Ballon d'Or, all team players--Ederson, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Oscar Bobb, Jeremy Doku, and Haaland-- each has missed at least nine games. In Rodri's case, it's been seven months.

Guardiola has admitted that he overestimated the abilities of aging stars such as Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, G\undogan, Ederson, and De Bruyne to maintain their level of performance.

Julian Alvarez, a runner who is excited and scores an average of one goal every three games, goes to Atletico Madrid and cannot be replaced.

Phil Foden, PFA's current Premier League best player, is back from the Euros in a state of fatigue and is still not getting his rhythm back.

His start against Southampton on Saturday, May 10, 2025, was his first for more than a month even though he could return to the bench against Palace.

"If you look at the number of goals and assists of many players who have been here for four, five, six years, this year (the decline) is incredible."

"Everything. Not one. One might be easy, but all of them. That's why we have trouble creating and winning games," said Guardiola.

Guardiola hints that he now believes that it has lasted too long with his players who have been tested and trusted.

Young players like Nico O'Reliance and James McAtee have been given more responsibility in recent weeks. It turned out to make the team's performance better.

Changes to Guardiola's tactical plans have helped. The midfielder with two defensive midfielders and two central strikers have given Manchester City more control in the game.

It was something they didn't have since Rodri's injury which ended the season in September 2024.

There is also a return to fighting spirit and desire that characterizes the best teams of The Citizens.

Gundogan told ESPN in April 2025 that he had seen changes in mentality since the victory he fought so hard for over Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium in the FA Cup match at the end of March 2025. They have not lost since.

"The way we behaved there was where they were, especially after conceding the first goal, I thought it was really amazing."

"People tend, especially in our society and the football community today, to value beautiful goals, beautiful assists, or beautiful actions by a player."

"They no longer appreciate the hard work for the team, have the right mentality, by being there, fighting for each other, staying close to each other, and doing everything together."

"So, sometimes you may tend to get a little away from these things. But to be honest, I have to say that since the international break in March 2025, since we got back together, I've seen improvements in the area too," said Gundogan.

Despite being unbeaten in 10 matches, Guardiola will be wary of Palace, who won a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park in December 2024 and won 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium in April 2025 before losing 2-5.

Oliver Glasner's side performed outstanding in the FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa. Last month, Palace drew with Arsenal and Nottingham Forest and beat Tottenham Hotspur.

Eberechi Eze, which Manchester City has monitored a lot in the past, has scored eight goals in its last 11 games for clubs and the country.

Glasner, Eze, and Palace will head to Wembley with confidence that they can give Manchester City another crushing defeat that has faced many things this season.

For Guardiola and his players, there is an opportunity to take further steps towards recovery.