Ahead of the teams crucial match on April 10 and their FA Cup semifinal a week later, Jamie Carragher made headlines for saying that Manchester City is the greatest team of all time. There is something unique about it. This is the first time that the two best teams in England are the two best teams in the world, led by the two greatest coaches of their generation, according to the Daily Telegraph. Many will claim that the fixtures overseen by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger at their peak were of similar quality and packed just as much of an emotional punch. When applied to European competition, the parallels run out of steam. The rest of English football has not been able to keep up with the pace of play. The Carabao Cup was won by the Reds and they are in the FA Cup final. It is possible that the two could meet in the final of the European Championship on May 28th, with City leading the league by one point with six games to play. Is he right? The head-to-head is a great rivalry, or just two great teams in the midst of a remarkable era, as argued by Gab Marcotti, Julien Laurens, Rob Dawson and James Olley. You can watch the FC daily on the US version of the network.
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It is pretty open and shut to me. The rivalry between these two teams is great because they are competing for the same titles at the same time. It is fun and competitive, but not a rivalry. I am not sure if these two have any of the other rivalry ingredients.
Laurens, first of all, let's start with the official definition of rivalry to see if these two qualify for it. The dictionary says that a rivalry is a competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field. It always gives us something to write about. European trophy and pedigree can be mentioned. We can show tension between fans and players. We can talk about the rivalry between Manchester United andArsenal at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s. It's a great rivalry and you can either like it or not.
They are potentially the two greatest teams the league has ever seen, so how can it not be a rivalry? How can it not be a rivalry when they dominate English football and have a chance to win a European title in the near future?
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Do they live in the same area? They are from different cities and have long-established local rivals in Manchester United andEverton.
Is there a long-running historical rivalry between them? Unless you have a time horizon of three or fours.
Do the fans have opposing characteristics? Many fans of the club like to point out that they are not English. You are talking about two fanbases that are based on traditional working-class and immigrant roots. For a long time, you would have thought of City as the more long-suffering fans, but in some ways, any fan between 1991 and Istanbul in 2005 might have felt the same. That applies to the traditional fans. Is there a difference in the global fan base? I can't tell.
Do the owners have opposing characteristics? There are two groups from Boston and Abu Dhabi. One made their money and the other did not. The differences end there. They are billionaires, and neither is present at their team's games.
Is there a religious or political layer to this? I can't see that.
Is the way the two teams play different? Nope again. They are not identical, but they are still talking high workrate, high pressing, high possession and a lot of quality.
The truth is that before the Abu Dhabi takeover of City, the two were almost always competing in different ways.
Even though they had not won a title in 30 years, they were still considered a leviathan of English football by City. Prior to 2008, City had won one English title and one European Cup. The team had won 18 titles and five European Cups.
Money cannot instantly make a person feel good, so this is not to criticize City or the remarkable team they have become.
Juls is correct. The rivalry between Manchester City andLiverpool has developed, but they have a long way to go before they are considered one of the great ones. We are still in the middle of it, so it is hard to tell what this is at the moment.
It is possible that they could share the trophy for the next decade, which would make the competition even more competitive. You can't know what will happen when you meet Lionel Messi andRonaldo in the same game.
The FC crew debated Man City's title chances after they regained the lead with a win.
Since Roman Abramovich's Blues bought their own ticket to the big time, there have been rivalries between them. The close proximity of the two teams made them hostile towards each other, particularly when they met in the 2008 European Championship final.
There were incidents of objects being thrown at City's bus prior to their European Quarterfinals match at Anfield, but the rivalry between Manchester City andLiverpool is not that intense. They aren't naturally opposing forces. It feels clinical and cold.
Some of that is down to City and their desire to own a football club in the first place. Some of it is down to the personality of the managers who are driving their teams forward. Football has evolved considerably over the past 20 years and this rivalry is in technical and tactical terms.
It is a privilege to watch City andLiverpool wrestle for the biggest prizes in England and Europe, as they may become the two best sides in Premier League history. Their points tally over the last few seasons support the argument that they have taken the game to new heights, remorseless in their consistency yet aesthetically beautiful in their methodology. They are both competing in the knowledge that if one doesn't win, the other will.
The rivalry between Manchester City andLiverpool has helped the team.
Is there a history of bad blood? They have gone out of their way to minimize the incidents. After a nasty contract dispute, he moved to City. Nobody cares about it today.
Remember when employees of Manchester City hacked into a scouting database? That could have been a very public event. It was not. Nobody talks about it anymore after the private settlement was signed.
Do you want beef? I will give you the story of the fight between Joe Gomez and England when they met after a match.
Do you want more? The City bus was attacked by fans of the other team on their way to the second leg of the playoffs.
This is a rivalry. The players want to beat each other. They don't like the fact that the other team is doing so well and having to share their successes and titles with one another. This is one of the reasons why the rivalry is so great, because City andLiverpool make each other stronger.
This is what rivalries do. They make you be at your best all the time.
The greatest domestic rivalry in English football is Manchester United vs.Arsenal, because it had everything: warring managers, squad harbouring genuine resentment towards each other, prior history, and a points deduction for the 1990 brawl. Both possessed the same power in Europe. In 1999, United won the treble, but they didn't get to play in the final until 2005.
The two best club sides in the world are City andLiverpool. They will create a history of their own if they stay at that level for a few more years.
Do the players and managers dislike each other? Over the years, there have been minimal jabs. The media-friendly Klopp may be a little more assertive, but the media-friendly Guardiola is not far behind. They say nice things about each other.
It is generally true about the players as well. Most are likeable.
Laurens said that the Care Bears are not the reason for the City vs.Liverpool game. It is not a neutral game. Every time they play each other there is tension and intensity on the pitch. The away fans and the home fans were at odds the other day.
This was a special game between the two rivals and the City stadium had never been as loud as it was this season. The risk for trouble was shown by the police presence outside the ground.
We have had big rivalries in the past, but this one is more of a footballing one. It is not because the children of the two rivals attend the same school. Fabinho, Alisson, Roberto Firmino, Ederson and Gabriel Jesus are not rivals because they spend a lot of time at Fernandinho's house.
These are two very good teams competing in the same era. It is great for the league because it has become one of the most eagerly anticipated games in the world because of how good they are.
The test of a great rivalry is whether neutrals will still watch if the teams are bad. Even if both Real Madrid and Barcelona were midtable in LaLiga, fans would still make a note in the diary to watch them.
There isn't a needle between Manchester City andLiverpool right now. They get sick of the sight of each other. Maybe it never arrives. Time will tell.
The commentator will usually say something along the lines of "That's not what fans want to see" when a brawl breaks out during a football match. It is the reason people are still watching the highlights of the Highbury tunnel fight between Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira more than 15 years later.
The competition is fierce between two fantastic teams, but it could do with a bit more edge if it is to truly reach that level.
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