Erik ten Hag has already told Crystal Palace how to beat Man City in FA Cup final

Crystal Palace will take on Manchester City in the FA Cup final next month after Pep Guardiola’s men beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 at Wembley Stadium on Sunday afternoon thanks to an early goal from Rico Lewis and a second half strike from Josko Gvardiol.

Oliver Glasner saw his side book a place in the final with a convincing 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday. Eberechi Eze opened the scoring with a stunning shot from distance before an Ismaila Sarr brace ensured there was no late drama from the villains.

Manchester City will go into the FA Cup final as favourites thanks to their history under Guardiola but last year’s Premier League Champions were defeated in that fixture 12 months ago. Local rivals Manchester United lifted the trophy having beaten the Cityzens 2-1.

Crystal Palace to face Manchester City in FA Cup final

While Guardiola’s side has fresh blood this season in Omar Marmoush, Savinho and Nico O’Reilly, the majority of the current squad featured in that defeat to the Red Devils. It was one of Ten Hag’s last matches in charge of Manchester United but his tactics have been well analysed, and will no doubt be studied by Crystal Palace in the coming weeks.

Going into the match, Ten Hag motivated his side after a disappointing season. He said: "In a season that's not [gone] our way, we are there. We have an opportunity and it will never be easy but we have to go for it and we will go for it. We have to believe it as we did last season and as we know, often against good opponents, we play our best football and I expect us to do this on Saturday."

Ten Hag also underlined the importance of a fit squad and a strong bench to take on Man City. He said: "I think we were very competitive [against Manchester City] until a VAR decision at Old Trafford. A tough decision. I didn't understand, no-one understood.

“We haven't seen this in the rest of the season, the decision in such a moment in a penalty situation. At the Etihad, we were, for 70 minutes, very good in the game and had opportunities to go ahead. They could substitute but we didn't have the players on the bench. That is a big difference. On Saturday, we will have a bench and will have a much stronger side."

Alejandro Garnacho opened the scoring in that game, capitalising on a mix-up between Stefan Ortega and Josko Gvardiol before Kobbie Mainoo netted from a clever Bruno Fernandes assist. Jeremy Doku pulled back a late goal but could not push the game into extra time.

How Crystal Palace can take inspiration from Manchester United FA Cup win

Ten Hag was praised for his tactics in that game, which was pinned on using Bruno Fernandes as a false nine rather than reinstating Rasmus Hojlund as an out-and-out striker. Glasner will surely start the in-form Jean-Philippe Mateta but could encourage a different type of performance from the Frenchman, playing in Eze and Sarr.

It had been reported by The Guardian that Ten Hag initially wanted to lead with Hojlund but that technical director Jason Wilcox urged the Dutchman to reconsider. Meanwhile, the Independent claim that Ten Hag wanted to go ‘toe to toe’ with Manchester City and was only convinced not to do so after ‘hours of internal debate’ led by Darren Fletcher.

Even if it wasn’t his idea, Ten Hag’s tactics show that it could be prudent to proceed with caution against Guardiola’s serial winning Manchester City, even if Crystal Palace have been prolific in the FA Cup this season. The Eagles have scored three goals in each of the last three rounds.

Crystal Palace could also take inspiration from Ten Hag’s use of emotion on the day of the FA Cup final. Speaking about his half-time team talk after lifting the trophy, Ten Hag said: "We did some special things [in the dressing room].[The] coaches were great and the staff produced some emotional videos, the emotion went into their minds. The videos fired the players' bodies and it helped that we were such a team."

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