Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists his Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola is the "best manager in the world" and says he has no problem finishing second to the Spaniard.
He said: "I'm lucky that I can say that my teams were at least close to his teams because I've said a lot of times, I think he is the best manager in the world.
"What he is doing with his team is incredible. The way they play, I really like to watch.
"Pep and I, we are different, so our teams mirror our character. He is much finer than I am as a person so he is the gentleman and I look how I look on the touchline. Probably a bit more intense maybe.
"There's no rivalry left or right of football. We respect each other lots but on the pitch we want to beat them, that's normal.
"At the end of the season in most of the seasons he has still won the league. In Germany always, and in England so far as well. That's how it is but I can easily live with that because I have no problem with being second even when I want to be first."
Liverpool currently sit 10 points clear at the top of the Premier League, 14 ahead of City, meaning Klopp is well set to finally triumph over Guardiola.
With a league title looking increasingly likely and alongside last season's Champions League success, Liverpool's current team has the potential to become an era-defining outfit, yet Klopp is unsure they will go on to dominate for years.
He said: "I don't think that something like that is possible still, this kind of domination in periods.
"It's not too long ago that we had the Barcelona of Pep Guardiola dominating pretty much everything.
"Man City dominating the Premier League for the last years since Pep is here at least. They are incredible and they have to fight each week.
"We don't think about ourselves like this. We don't think that somebody has to name us on the same level with any Ajax team, any United teams or other teams in the world.
"We just want to play the best football we can play and we want to have the best time together we can have."
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