Klopp admires the team Guardiola has built. It is the same among the players: Virgil van Dijk has voted for Raheem Sterling as player of the year. There is no particular historical enmity between Manchester City and Liverpool, but over the last year a distinctly modern rivalry has started to take shape. At first, it seemed to manifest primarily online, performative and point-scoring, in which Liverpool resented City’s wealth, ambition and relevance, and City chafed at Liverpool’s history and fame. Over the last year that has changed, bleeding into the three-dimensional world, invoked in songs that sweep down from the stands at the Etihad Stadium, in particular.

Source: New York Times April 12, 2019 06:00 UTC