Last weekend, Manchester City hosted their biggest rivals Liverpool in a top-of-the-table clash in the Premier League. The two sides shared the honours as record-breaker Erling Haaland’s first half goal was cancelled out by a Trent Alexander-Arnold equaliser in the dying embers of the game.
In a recent interview, Man City midfielder Rodri talked about his future at the Etihad Stadium and what he aspires to achieve with the Pep Guardiola-led side.
The Spanish midfielder had an incredible 2022-23 season, emerging as perhaps the best defensive midfielder in Europe and helping Man City win a historic treble, scoring the only goal in the UEFA Champions League Final against Inter Milan.
Rodri wants to help Man City be “as big as Liverpool”
The former Atletico Madrid man sat down for an interview with Football Daily, where he was asked what his ambitions with Man City were.
In what was an incredibly honest admission, Rodri confessed that he wanted Man City to be as big as Liverpool one day after talking about how the Reds are one of the most prestigious English clubs in football history.
Liverpool has had a better history than us. It’s normal. And, of course, Liverpool has been top two, top three teams of all-time in this country [England]. So it’s normal for the common group to support them. But we are here to change the history and we are here to start being part of the modern era of the Premier League and be, one day, as big as Liverpool.
– Rodri
Indeed, Liverpool are historically one of the most successful English clubs of all-time, not just domestically but also in Europe.
The Merseyside outfit have 19 top-flight titles to their name, even though they won just one title in the Premier League era (2019-20). On the contrary, Manchester City had periods of struggle in the past few decades where they were often relegated from the first division. In fact, they played in the third division as recently as the late 1990s.
Liverpool are also the most successful English club in the Champions League, winning the Big Ears six times, a tally only bettered by AC Milan (7) and Real Madrid (14). Man City have overseen a period of sheer dominance under Pep Guardiola, winning five of their nine top-flight titles under the former Barcelona manager alone.
They won their maiden Champions League trophy last season. Rodri would be certainly hoping that he can help the Sky Blues expand their trophy cabinet with many more Champions League and Premier League trophies in the coming years.
However, the fact remains that City will have to play catch-up with Liverpool for a very long to come.
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