Jurgen Klopp says his Liverpool team face "the most difficult game in the world of football" when they take on Manchester City this weekend.
City go head-to-head with the Reds at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday in a battle between the Premier League's top two sides last season.
Liverpool took the title by an emphatic 18-point margin in 2019-20 - but Klopp remains wary of Pep Guardiola's men.
"This is the most difficult game in the world of football to play against Manchester City," he said at his pre-match press conference.
“I really don't want to speak about us but it is obvious that it is not too easy to play against us, but the challenge with City is always the way they play with the players they have. So that makes it really tricky.
"There are other teams that are really good. If we were now to face Bayern Munich they are in a pretty good moment for a while already I wouldn't say that is a Sunday afternoon walk in the park.
"That's a massive and tough game and there are other games as well. It is just in England with all the quality of the other teams, massive quality.
"If you think about it, all the challenges in the game - what you have to be aware of and think about and what you have to do - it is City because they have a good plan, a clear plan and in each position a player who has the physicality and the technique to make a difference.
"They play a specific way, they are pretty dominant, but if they have to counter-attack they are pretty strong so they have speed and creativity and that is not so cool when the other team has that and make it pretty tricky.
"And that is why I said it, it is 100 per cent like this, I don't think anybody else would see differently apart from a few journalists who always react on a moment: 'ah, but in a moment they are this or that'.
"But actually they are in really good shape. If you don't use all your chances that can cause you a problem results-wise but for me it is important that they had all these chances.
"That is what I have to think about and not if they finish them off or not because I know they will finish them off from a specific point and we just have to make sure it doesn't happen on Sunday and they will not have that many.”
Klopp was asked if he enjoyed the tactical battle in the same "obsessive" way Guardiola seems to - based on City's 2018 All or Nothing documentary.
The German replied: "He's obsessed?!
"I didn't watch the documentary so I don't know what you are talking about!
"Very often when you play against an opponent you realise that pretty much all the preparation is really difficult because when they play against us they change everything and that makes it really tricky because you don't know what to expect.
“In this case, yes, City do what they always do and it is that good they do it always because if wasn't that good they would change it from time to time.
"That makes it a challenge in the preparation but interesting as well because you don't play a lot of games against a team with such a high quality like City in specific areas where they play and all this kind of thing.
"Yes, I enjoy the preparation but unfortunately we still lost some games against them.
"Just because I like to prepare for a game against them doesn't mean we win it afterwards, but from time to time it is nice that I have fun as well.”
