Bernardo Silva and Man City were beaten 1-0 by Crystal Palace (Image: Getty Images)
Bernardo Silva has issued a scathing assessment of his Manchester City team-mates following their FA Cup final defeat, stating: "You learn who you can go to war with." The loss to Crystal Palace at Wembley on Saturday means that City will conclude the season without any silverware for only the second time in [Pep Guardiola](https://www.express.co.uk/latest/pep-guardiola)'s illustrious nine-year tenure.
The Portuguese midfielder did not mince words in his evaluation, accusing some of his team-mates of failing to rise to the occasion during challenging times and questioning their dedication. "In the bad moments you learn new things," Silva declared. "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 commended Palace on their historic victory, acknowledging that they were the rightful winners on the day, thanks to Eberechi Eze's first-half goal.
"They defended really well, they were really patient, they were very organised," the 30-year-old remarked.
"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."