Erling Haaland’s heartbreaking FA Cup moment left Manchester City fans divided

Manchester City fell victim to a shocking upset at the hands of Crystal Palace in Saturday's FA Cup final, a 1-0 defeat that denied Pep Guardiola's team their final shot at a trophy amid a disappointing campaign. Arguably no one took the defeat harder than star striker Erling Haaland, who was seen squatting in the center circle for minutes afterward as Palace's players celebrated around him.

Haaland isn't typically one for emotion, so you can only imagine how painful this loss is for him. But City fans might not want to hear it, at least not from this player and not right now: For all of Haaland's many accomplishments with the club, he's developed a nasty habit of coming up small in the biggest moments, and Saturday was just one more example.

Manchester City fans once again find themselves wanting more from Erling Haaland

Despite outshooting Palace 23-7 and registering six shots on frame, City failed to score — and pointedly, so did Haaland, running his scoreless streak in finals to seven straight.

It would be easy to chalk his latest dud up to poor health: Haaland is still working his way back from an ankle injury suffered in City's cup quarterfinal win over Bournemouth back in March, one that Guardiola said at the time could cost him up to seven weeks.

But if Haaland is going to insist that he's in good enough form to be on the field, then he needs to be held responsible for how he plays. And he simply wasn't good enough on Saturday, despite Guardiola insisting on making him a central part of City's tactics. It was all too easy to forget about him; he even declined to take a crucial penalty in the first half; instead Omar Marmoush walked up to the spot only to be denied by Henderson.

To be sure, Haaland isn't the only player (or coach) to blame for this loss. But he is one of the faces of his club, and with that praise comes great expectations. As long as Haaland continues to fall short of that bar, fans aren't going to have a ton of sympathy for him.