Bernardo Silva calls out Man City team-mates with brutal message after FA Cup final loss

Bernardo Silva called out his Manchester City team-mates after their FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace and said: “You learn who you can go to war with.” City will end the season empty-handed for only the second time in Pep Guardiola ’s glittering nine-year reign after Saturday’s loss.

Midfielder Silva pulled no punches in his brutal assessment and accused some of his team-mates of not stepping up during the tough moments and questioned their commitment.

"In the bad moments you learn new things," said Silva. "Who you can go to war with, first of all, because it's in the bad moments that you see who the real ones are.

"It's been a really, really bad season for us. Something has to change next year. I have my opinion, but I'm not going to give it to you. It's for the big bosses to decide. But definitely, something needs to change when you don't perform at this level.

"Our standard needs to be very, very high to be champions again - and that's the level we want to reach again. I'd say it’s a bit of everything, but the season was not good for many reasons.

"But there are a lot of things that were good for us, like not taking things for granted and not lowering our standards. We’ve got people used to winning every year and people demand this team wins every year. But football is a tough sport and it's not easy to beat these teams, especially in the Premier League ."

Silva praised Palace for their historic win and accepted they were deserved winners on the day, through Eberechi Eze's first-half goal.

"They defended really well, they were really patient, they were very organised," said Silva. "We knew that before the game in terms of being patient and we knew how dangerous they were on the counter, how quick and what very good individuals they were.

"But then also we lacked a bit of quality in the final third to score our chances. But congratulations to them, they're a very good team."

Pep Guardiola also stayed humble in defeat and said the fine margins decided the game. He said: "We played really good. We did everything and created chances, but unfortunately, we couldn’t score. They scored with their first transition. It’s about goals – they scored one, so congratulations to Crystal Palace .

"It wasn’t just possession. We created chances and chances. They didn’t create much, but they defended really well, really deep, like under Roy Hodgson ."

The Spaniard was seen clashing with Dean Henderson at full time after the goalkeeper appeared to handle the ball outside the box, but he refused to comment on the incident, adding: "I'm not the referee!"