Despite ruining Premier League teams on a weekly basis and winning their last 11 consecutive games in all competitions ahead of last night's League Cup clash with Wolves, Manchester City struggled against the Championship leaders, with Pep Guardiola's men unable to break the visitors down over 120 minutes, before finally deciding the tie on penalties.
And Pep Guardiola and Yaya Toure have an interesting reason as to why they struggled so much against Nuno Espirito Santo's men, last night.
The Mitre football used in the League Cup this season is 'too light' and 'rubbish', according to the City pair.
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Speaking to reporters after City's 4-1 penalty shoot-out victory, Toure said, "I don't like it, to be honest. They can do better than that. It's too light.
"Even in my country they can't use those kind of balls. I think they have to be better than that because the ball was too soft. It's rubbish, but that's fine.
"It's everything. Shooting - the ball is very light, when you touch it, it's floating, it's rubbish. And in this weather it's difficult."
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The Ivorian midfielder was asked about how the ball compared to the oft derided Adidas Jabulani of 2010 World Cup infamy, and Toure claimed the Mitre effort was just as bad.
"The World Cup one was better than this one. A lot of players were complaining.
The FA can try to do something because we just want to enjoy it. It's difficult to play with these kind of balls but we try to find a way."
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Guardiola was equally as blunt in his assessment of the ball.
"It is too light, it moves all over the place, it is not a good ball. It is impossible to score with a ball like that and I can say that because we won, I'm not making excuses. All of my players said: 'What is that?' I'm sorry Carabao Cup is not a serious ball for a serious competition. It's [for] marketing, money, OK but it's not acceptable - [it has] no weight, nothing."
Nevertheless, Wolves didn't seem to have too many issues with the ball, until they failed to put it into the net with consecutive spot kicks, before Sergio Aguero sealed the victory for the Citizens.
The EFL have since released a statement concerning Guardiola's comments on the ball.
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Given that 18 goals were scored in the other League Cup games that took place, last night, maybe Pep and Yaya should just put their failures in front of goal down to a rare off night?
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(H/T The Guardian, Goal)
Topics: Manchester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Football News, Carabao Cup, EFL, Football, Pep Guardiola, Premier League, League Cup, Yaya Toure, Wolves
