Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admitted he made a mistake with his tactics in their 2-1 FA Cup final defeat by Manchester United.
Guardiola made three changes to the side that beat West Ham last weekend to clinch the Premier League title.
At half-time at Wembley and trailing 2-0, he reversed two of those by bringing on Jeremy Doku and Manuel Akanji for Mateo Kovacic and Nathan Ake.
Belgium winger Doku scored for City in the 87th minute, but they could not battle back to defend the trophy they won against United last season.
“Congratulations to Manchester United on winning the FA Cup,” Guardiola said afterwards.
“I think my game plan was not good. The second half was much much better. We were more intense, in part because we were 2-0 down and had nothing to lose. It was a tight game.
“We had clear chances in the second half which wasn’t easy because they had man-marking and defended the pockets but we had the chances and unfortunately we scored a goal a little bit late.”
It was the first time Guardiola had lost a domestic cup final in England, after four League Cup and two FA Cup successes.
“It’s normal teams can lose finals but this season has been extraordinary, fighting for all the trophies in a good way,” he added. “We’ll rest and come back next season.”
Guardiola was asked if his side was sluggish, but said: “No. For my decisions we were not in the right positions to attack them. My mistake, my game plan was not good.”
When asked what he was trying to do, he added: “The players know the reason why. Tactically, it was not good. I was not good today. You plan a game for different positions but it didn’t work.
“Always when we play against United, we have the control and we created in the second half but we were not able to do it.” BBC
