Yeah, I've said here a couple of times, but I find it very difficult to judge (or crown) this City side when the top 6 is in the state it is.
One could argue 3 of 6 should be, or are about to be, in rebuild mode. And anyone who knows me knows I love me some Spurs, but they spent 0$ in the transfer market and moved to a new stadium mid-season. That squad was spread pretty thin this season, let's be real.
You could even extend this discussion outside of England and look at Europe's traditional elite clubs. Which of them are playing at a level you'd consider exceptional, or even close to their peak? Barca fans want Valverde gone, Kovac's Bayern isn't exactly super, Madrid is a mess, Ronaldo didn't really raise Juve's level that much and Allegri's out; Inter and AC are nothing like they used to be. I mean honestly, which club? Even clubs like PSG and Atletico aren't at a level you'd consider their highest in recent memory and look to be going through a transition stage.
Basically, our only way to really judge City is Liverpool. And the Liverpool side that completely smacked City in the CL (the healthy De Bruyne, 100 point City I might add), is the exact same Liverpool Roma played.
And sure, Liverpool were really good, at times exceptional even; they clearly deserved to go through and I'd never suggest otherwise, but after we made some adjustments I thought we at least caused them a few issues. Maybe the Liverpool fans here view that tie differently, but I think I'm being pretty reasonable.
But despite them being the superior side, at no point did I feel Roma were playing some slayer of all-time greatness. I mean, if that Liverpool side Roma played was truly the team that not only beat, but smoked, the greatest team in Premier League history 5-1... then I dunno what to tell ya.
And look, I know the CL isn't always the greatest indicator of quality. Weird things can happen, and upsets exist, but I think for the most part, if you know what you're looking at it, you can generally get a good idea of how good a team is over 180 minutes despite the result. And in cases when it's two teams so familiar with each other, from the same damn league, I think it becomes a little more valid. Why did the greatest team ever from England get smoked by another team.... from England? Someone, please explain that to me. And please don't tell me that Liverpool is the 2nd greatest team ever from England, because at that point, we're handing out greatness cards like Oprah. If you want to say this season's edition has a claim, fine, I'd probably disagree, but it's more valid than 2017-18's edition.
Furthermore, I could easily make the argument our 2006-08 team was just as good, if not better than our 2017-18 side. And when we played United in the CL, they murdered us. That time, I actually came away from the tie thinking we were miles apart. There was no adjusting or clawing back, no glimmer of hope ...nothing.
And of course, I'm well aware how I view the game is just as flawed and biased as anyone else. Maybe the sample size is too small, or maybe I'm forgetting things, or maybe I'm just completely wrong - I dunno.
What I do know is, is that I'd really like to stop seeing City get knocked out of the CL by clubs from England. Not a great look for supposedly the country's greatest ever side. You should probably avoid doing that, one would think.