Jurgen Klopp has thanked Pep Guardiola for a compliment that saw the Manchester City boss label Liverpool as "one of the best sides in the whole of football history" this week.
After knocking them out of the FA Cup at the semi-final stage last Saturday, the Reds then went above City at the top of the Premier League on Tuesday night with a 4-0 demolition of Manchester United before Guardiola's men regained top spot 24 hours later with a 3-0 victory at home to Brighton.
Speaking about their qualities as a title rival, Guardiola said: “ Liverpool are one of the best sides in the whole of football history, we are facing one of the best teams ever."
And while Klopp is thankful of the high praise, he says he cannot compare his or Guardiola's teams with the best sides of the last 20 or 30 years as the two giants of English football continue to duel it out for the Premier League title.
"Thank you very much Pep," Klopp said. "I can give [that compliment] exactly like that back, if they are not the best team in history already to be honest.
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"I cannot compare really with what was 20 or 30 years ago, but the football standard with all the things I know today, they are really really really good and I don’t know a better team to be honest.
"Yes, we are not too far away, so we are a good team as well, but how good in history we will probably judge later in life. Then we will see what we think then."
Liverpool host Everton in the 240th Merseyside derby on Sunday afternoon knowing the relegation-threatened Blues could slip into the drop zone if they lose and Klopp believes a big cause of the problems at Goodison Park has been the inability to keep Dominic Calvert-Lewin fit for the majority of the campaign.
He added: "No, I didn’t watch them often enough [to compare Frank Lampard with Rafa Benitez], not really. I think the situation is becoming more and more difficult because of results, when Rafa was there, there was still some distance between Everton and the relegation zone and that has nothing to do with the way they played, it was just the way it developed.
"Obviously they have had some real injury problems this year too. Obviously if you lose Calvert-Lewin or cannot use him for nearly a whole season, that is a massive blow.
"He is one of the best strikers in England for sure. And then coming back and not having this type of rhythm and all these things. You do not have 12 of these types of players in your squad and then other things happen.
"I cannot say anything about different styles. They brought in different players, Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli, maybe some others, but I didn’t watch it that way."
