Man City and Liverpool have developed a fierce rivalry in recent times, with Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp's sides regularly involved in thrilling encounters and close-run title races.
Here, two Liverpool.com writers give their most unpopular City opinions, and the City Is Ours team respond.
James Martin - 'Well done Michael, he's 13'
There is no arguing with the fact that City play exceptional football. To be fair, you'd hope so: hundreds of millions of pounds have been ploughed into recruiting the best personnel in every conceivable area, from the pitch to the dugout. No doubt the club shop employs a crack team of retail specialists too.
The result is success, and plenty of it. But my unpopular opinion can be distilled to this: Man City success has become the default.
Guardiola's men are essentially the house team of the Premier League - they have to be expected to win, and the only spectacle comes from when they do not do so. While the league titles don't come with an asterisk as such, they certainly come with a shrug of the shoulders. To draw from Liverpool lore, it very much has the same energy as 'well done Michael, he's 13'.
Of course, it's still delightful to see the Champions League continue to evade Man City, so their success or lack thereof is not met with complete indifference from Liverpool fans, but it seems inevitable that they will eventually claim that elusive crown.
There's a reason they start almost every season as the favourites with the bookies: the playing field simply is not level, to the point where long-term success is a statistical inevitability. Not winning everything is a failure for this side, and when victory is the default, the accomplishment is diminished.
Alex Brotherton - If I hadn't seen such riches...
I think that James' unpopular opinion - essentially that success is boring and meaningless if you have the resources that City do - comes from a place of fear. He's afraid that one day soon, Liverpool's own success may become evaluated in terms of transfer fees and privilege, rather than the brilliance of their players.
I can see why that must be such a terrifying prospect for a Liverpool fan; how would the 'lore' surrounding European nights at Anfield and the 'this means more' brigade survive if Klopp actually put together a team capable of challenging City for the title every year, rather than just every once in a while?
He certainly has the resources to do so, he just needs to stop playing his ludicrous and unsustainable brand of 'heavy metal' football.
James is right, there does tend to be a shrug of the shoulders when City win the title. Not from City fans though.
Let me spell it out: When you support a club that didn't win a trophy for 35 years, that sank to the third division and near bankruptcy, that scored a meagre 10 goals at home all season 15 years ago and that was forever the butt of jokes from practically every fan of every Premier League team, then no, winning does not become boring and the sense of accomplishment is not diminished.
Liverpool fans have never had to endure such lows, they wouldn't understand.
Anyway, got to dash - I have a darkened room just perfect for me to go and sob in and lament the brilliance of my team.
Emmet Gates - Klopp is simply better
Klopp and Guardiola are the two seminal, defining managers of the current era. Their teams can play simply mesmerising, intoxicating football that can send their respective fans into a state of delirium.
Many have tried to imitate what the pair have done over the course of their careers, but none have been able to match the original pair. Mini Klopps and Guardiolas are everywhere.
But when it comes right down to it, between the two, Klopp is a better manager.
The German does more with less. He’s never demanded Liverpool spend hundreds of millions of pounds on four full-backs, let alone midfielders and attackers. Liverpool’s biggest signing has been Virgil van Dijk for £75 million, which would buy you one-and-a-half Kyle Walkers, or around three-quarters of a Jack Grealish.
Guardiola has only one more Champions League trophy to his name, despite having the luxury of picking the greatest and strongest sides in Europe to coach. City have spent over £1 billion for Guardiola, and yet he still can’t prove he can win the big one without the genius of Lionel Messi. He hasn't won it in a decade.
Klopp has never had a Messi, or anything close to it. Give Klopp the same money Guardiola has had available to him, and Liverpool likely have more Champions League trophies.
Klopp does more with less, and that's why he's better.
Dom Farrell - Klopp himself said Pep is the best manager in the world and here’s why
Are we really doing transfer fee comparisons here? Gosh, it’s so reductive, but if you insist.
Kevin De Bruyne cost City £55 million and Naby Keita set Liverpool back £52 million. Nice to see they’re putting in roughly comparable performances on the pitch.
Alisson has been a fabulous signing for Liverpool, but is he really worth almost two Edersons and all the tattoos such a prospect would encompass?
It’s actually a good job there aren’t one-and-a-half Kyle Walkers, because that would mean one-and-a-half times as much whinging about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s lack of England chances as we already have to endure.
Also, the assertion that Klopp has never had a Messi or anything close to it really comes as a body blow to Ballon d’Or aspirant Mohamed Salah. Isn’t he supposed to be the best player in the world right now?
You see, in a rivalry so rich with talent and achievement, you can whatabout your way into a cul-de-sac at any point. Trying to minimise Guardiola’s achievements on account of the resources he enjoys has to become exhausting at some point, because the achievements are so ludicrously vast.
Lifting the Champions League at City is an itch he badly needs to scratch, but nine league titles in 12 seasons as a top-division coach tells its own absurd story. He is an ever-evolving, all-consuming, dominant figure.
The “let’s see him do it with a mid-table team” argument is nonsense. Guardiola doesn’t get, keep and excel in these jobs out of charity. He does so because he’s the best. You wouldn’t ask Lewis Hamilton to man the 17 bus route just to see how he gets on.
Also, let’s be clear, these weaker clubs that Pep scandalously elects not to coach - Liverpool do not count as one of those. Like City, they are a team boasting some of the best players in the world, multi-million pound stars on astronomical wages, just like others in the European elite.
Yes, City have spent vastly and wisely, but let’s not pretend they have seen off a plucky set of chancers Klopp found having kickabouts on Stanley Park. These are arguably the two best teams of the Premier League era and neither of them grew on trees.
Finally, consider what Guardiola does with that lavishly upholstered squad. Almost every player who has spent a year or more in his company has improved considerably in numerous aspects.
One-and-a-half Kyle Walkers is just Kyle Walker nowadays. A year from now, the rest of European football will be praying for three-quarters of a Jack Grealish.
Who is the better manager, Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp? Follow City Is Ours writer Alex Brotherton and Dom Farrell as well as our Liverpool.com team James Martin and Emmet Gates on Twitter to join the conversation and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
